Thomas and the Titans
by Broken Saint of the Lost God
Summary: When you live in Rifts earth you come to expect odd things to happen, even so its rather far fetched to open the door to your favorite diner fall through the floor and wake up eleven years younger, sane and sitting in the middle of a golden hallway.
1. Chapter One or Where am I now

A bright day dawned for the frontier town of Naz-reth, home of the ten year stew pot, famous for the blue river, where it is said you can pull precious stones from the sands of the riverbank (Total B.S.), our intrepid hero sat , up yawned and scratched all over as he mulled over what to have for breakfast, his blanket stank like old sweat and very faintly of dog, and felt scratchy on his legs, he pulled his scarred naked form from the bed like most augmented humans his body was sculpted not unlike the statue of ancient Greek heroes, his strength nearly unparalleled, speed that would make any athlete jealous, and the sheer endurance to outlast anyone stronger or faster.

Sounds great at the surface, all it takes is seventeen magnets each less than half the size of the head of a needle, strategically placed to stimulate certain areas of the brain enhancing strength, speed, endurance and recovery time to unnatural levels even going so far as to unlock the dormant psychic powers of even the least gifted individual. What they don't tell you is that the very magnets that give you all that power are slowly, but surely eroding your mind, giving birth to neurosis, hallucination, paranoia, delusion, and eventually no matter how careful you are, your mind and body simply tear themselves apart spectacularly. But that downer aside our hero hasn't yet reached that point yet, infact as Crazies go our hero is pretty well off, a bit of an introvert, hyperactivity, an intense sensitivity to magical energies causing migraines, oh and an intense fear of the dark, oh yes things could be so much worse, but at least he'll outlive every juicer who ever managed to crack a joke whose particulars involve comparing his head to a disco ball (seventeen dime sized locater studs do not a disco ball make) however we are getting ahead of ourselves, our hero gathered up his gear rifle and blade and strapped on the pitted armored plates that protect him from the things he cant dodge, the things not of this hellish unstable world where madness is deemed a fair trade for the power necessary to make your way in it.

"Life sucks when your on the down end of a manic streak" thinks our hero as he steps out into the dusty heat of the town's main street the populace by and large hadn't managed to get out of bed as false dawn had only just made its appearance and most sane people tend to prefer to start the day when the day actually starts. Making his way down to Anne's diner, the sweet all night greasy spoon run by his dearest friend Anne, being an Elf Anne requires only a few hours of meditation each day to be perfectly well rested as such her diner runes night and day with little downtime, the forest green two story building flanked on all sides by lush garden boxes filled with wild flowers whose surprisingly mild yet sweet fragrance sooths the recently violated nose of our hero.

"Morning Anne!" called Tom as he strolled through the door accompanied by the jingle-jangle of the door bell, now thats when things got plain weird, the floor(Which is usually there except for that one instance with the fusion block) simply vanished into a shimmering golden doorway, and its through that doorway that Thomas fell squealing.

The first thing that our hero was aware of was an odd tingling sensation that coursed through his body and a sharp aching in his skull he felt squashed and stretched and as time passed the tingling in his head got worse until her heard/felt a sharp *crackle* that simply couldn't be anything good, and as suddenly as it happened it stopped and he felt the strangely cool air envelope him and a gaudy gold tiled floor rushed up to greet him.

With lightning reflexes Thomas turned mid air and put his shoulder to ground first rolling into the fall to end up on his feet facing a wall constructed of the same dull golden material, as he turned and gazed upon the odd octagonal plated hallways he noticed doorways set at intervals down the wall stretching left and right, they seemed to split down the middle sliding into the walls, a control panel on the right hand side of the wall seemed to be the control mechanism, to our heroes great distress there were several shiny buttons that just begged (BEGGED!) to be pushed, without further adue our hero reached out and jammed his finger down on the largest of the buttons with a slightly manic grin.

After about thirty seconds with nothing happening Thomas frowned, "this sucks" he cracked out, only to grab his throat in shock, "wh-what the hell is wrong with my voice?" he squeaked, frantically he felt around his face "oh no, oh no, oh no, I am NOT going through puberty a second time damnit!" he shouted, "Keep It DOWN! ya snot eatin loser" bite out a rather short bald kid four doors down the hall, and maaan he was short standing no more than three feet tall if he was a mile, dressed in a green jumpsuit and wearing some kind of silver backpack a set of welding goggles strapped to his forehead completed the ensemble, the bags under his eyes and the pillow lines on his face a good indicator that it was either very early or very late wherever he was.

"Hey! who the hell are you?" snapped out the bald kid as our hero continued to stare at him, "Umm, the names Tom, and you are?" he asked a bit nervously, unsure if this kid was some psychotic super borg or wizard or some kind of unnamable horror in this world, "Tom? your names Tom!" the laughter that followed was both annoying and in Tom's mind wholey unnecessary, "eat shit and die you bald midget" snapped our hero annoyed, said midget seemed to take grievous offense at this and proceeded to sprout four large metallic spider-like legs from his backpack, and from over his left shoulder some kind of cannon leveled at our hero's armored form, feeling a bit more confident at the sight of robotics, weird robotics but robotics none the less, the bald midget didn't give Tom much time to enjoy his relief as he started firing, twitching left and right ducking under and leaping over the blasts, even in this enclosed space the midgets bad aim mixed with Tom's unnatural reflexes meant that every shot went pretty wide as Tom closed into the half pint, drawing his vibroblade he leapt forward slashing as he went, his blade parted the metal like water as he ended up underneath the now unbalanced technophile, who struggled to compensate for the loss of his leg, now directly underneath him, Tom leapt up and twisting mid air kicked him square in the face with his armored boot, the blow knocked the midget reeling back on his rear legs and finally collapsing to the floor in an unconscious heap, "Nighty night half pint" grinned Tom.

Thats when the alarms started blaring, a trio of people in odd crimson robes stood at the end of the hallway one of them had their hands on a control panel, they took little time in establishing whether or not he was a threat or if this was all a huge misunderstanding, they just charged in, unarmed and eager, Tom chuckled as they seemed to stumble towards him in a flurry of robes "awww how cute" he giggled "the squishies think they can fight" it was then that the enemy was upon him in all their unaugmented glory, calling it a one sided fight is not doing it justice, they may as well have been standing still for all that they could fight back his fists nipped under every attempt at defense, his legs lashed out in a flurry of kicks that decimated the first three in a heartbeat, all too soon they started coming out of the woodworks as Tom lost himself in a flurry of punches and kicks, until at last he had to stop holding back or be overwhelmed and started swinging one of their number into groups of the bastards.

"Have these guys never heard of guns" muttered Tom as he tossed the last of the crimson robed figures to the floor clapping his hands to free them of the grime of a decent fight, the alarm still blaring Tom waited a few moments expecting more to arrive, when none made an appearance he sighed and rubbed the top of his head calloused hands scrapping against the locator studs stopping when he realized that they had all lined up into some sick parody of a Mohawk, "oh for fuck sake" groaned Thomas thats when the door on his right opened and an eight foot giant of a man stepped through the door, his broad brown haired head nearly scrapping the roof as he yawned hugely stepping over one of the many robed figures "whats going on, wheres the party?", Tom stared up at the living mountain of muscle and mullet "what the hell happened to Gizmo?" he asked as a disheveled Goth with mussed purple hair stepped out from behind him, bleary purple eyes blinking in the bright light of the hallways standing barefoot beside her bedmate and wearing his shirt judging from his broad naked chest and the fact her nightgown hangs nearly to her shins, "Dunno, hey! whos that?" at this the purple haired Goth gestured at our hero, and Thomas, under the twin stare of the daunting pair felt more than a touch unnerved its not everyone who can look calmly upon the unconscious body of their comrade and a pile of fifty unconscious robed men who look like they lost a fist fight with mighty Thor, "definitely not good" muttered Tom.

The big fella took one long step forward placing himself between our hero and his girlfriend, "hey who ARE you anyway? I ain't never seen you around her before" he reached out to jab Tom with a thick finger, Tom slipped back a step and a half to avoid the digit "uh I'm new ?" tried Tom, "mmhmm" murmured the Goth looking less groggy by the second, she stepped gracefully around her mountainous boyfriend and eyed Tom, who upon seeing the change in mood drew his vibroblade and readied to deal with the mountainous menace and Goth, "I've killed dragons and destroyed robots the size of apartment buildings you think a jock and his Goth girlfriend are even gonna slow me down?" The big guy didn't buy it for a second he did however haul back and swing his huge arm straight towards our hero with the intent of turning him into paste, Tommy managed to duck under the heavy limb and was bringing his knife to bear on the unprotected ribs of the mammoth man, when the vibration generator stopped working, the knife flashed purple and stopped buzzing causing the blade sharp though it was to simply dimple the heavily muscled side of the man, aside from grunting from the impact he didn't seem bothered, he did however manage to wrap his heavy arm around toms head and squeeze it against his side with crushing pressure, Toms fists seemed to blur as he desperately tried to batter his way free of the impossibly strong grip even as black spots danced before his eyes, and finally darkness.

Brother Blood, headmaster of the prestigious H.I.V.E. academy, the foremost learning establishment of villains both super and mundane, sighed, it was a calm night something of a precious treat in the hectic mishap filled life of a villain, he sat upon the padded meditation mat and exhaled slowly the tea cup filled to the brim with steaming fluid remained still in the air at his elbow motionless the dark liquid within still as his center steam slowly curled from its surface drifting off into the darkness of his chambers, he did not sleep his perfect control of both his mind and body allowed him to forgo such pedestrian things as sleep, the quiet moments in his chambers the breath between duties that was where his rest was found, though a periodic indulgence of solitude was as a vacation to him a time to focus and reflect to still his thoughts and just be.

For but a moment he allowed his mind to wander the vast halls of his home, each tile, ever vent and doorway, each hall and class room, just feeling touching lightly the minds of the students and faculty, there is always activity within the walls always people going, coming, practicing, studying, catching up on paper work, some like Kyd wykkyd and a very few others needed no sleep to function, their minds a mysterious fog to his senses a mild annoyance at best but their alien natures belied great potential to great to allow another to possess.

His night time musings were cut brutally short as an immense burst of energy exploded into his senses, as violent and unexpected as it was powerful, Brother Blood howled in pain and clutched the sides of his head as the spike of agony lanced through his mind, the tea cup at his shoulder exploded as his mind reeled and he toppled onto his back sprawling as though struck, despite the suddenness of the attack his mind and body worked inconcert to sooth its tattered nerves, as he stood shakily to his feet, he sent his mind hurdling towards the site of the diminishing burst of energy only to discover an alien presence lurking in *his* halls, immediately he reached out and guided his faculty member to the intruders location even as he sensed Gizmo irate and lustful and jealous storming towards his doorway intent on scathing whoever had disturbed his type of peace, the battle between the unreadable invader and Gizmo was violently brief, so short was the battle that his own forces had barely amassed in time to intercept their new guest before he could lose himself in the corridors.

his faculty member proved less helpful than anticipated fifty strong felled with brutal efficiency even with his considerable aid, guiding their movements as any good puppet master coordinating their attacks, positioning them to greatest advantage, and still their guest was simply too fast, too strong, it was through their eyes that he was allowed to look upon this new threat, average height with short brown hair cut close to his scalp a line of silver disks parting his crown down the middle, tanned and broad shouldered, dressed in military fatigues and armored, a rifle on his back and a long bladed knife in his fist, moving like water impossibly fast ducking under or slithering around sure strikes only to land crushing blows thought the most sturdy defense, when the last of his minions fell, he sighed in deep frustration, he hated to include the students in his squabbles, a flicker of his considerable power was all it took to convince Mammoth and Jinx that someone was at their door, sure enough Mammoth's incredible strength and raw durability, coupled with Jinx tripping him up proved the interlopers undoing, and trapped within Mammoth's iron grip his struggles slowed until finally they stopped, and he was still, and then he twitched, and he breathed, and he lived his head knitting itself together and his body adjusting, healing, until at last he was whole again.

Fascinated Brother Blood, reached out and called to his students "Mammoth please bring our guest to my chambers i want to have a little chat with him" the momentary confusion from the titanic oaf was as sour milk to his "tongue" but the acceptance was sweet relief as he paused long enough to tell his paramour his intention and began his lumbering way upstairs to the headmasters quarters guest in tow, the door slid open as Mammoth approached, he stood a moment before the pitch darkness of the headmasters private sanctum unsure if he should enter or not, he was not left long pondering this question as the headmaster appeared from the gloom, smiling his creepy self assured smirk at the sight of his student, his impeccable golden robes unruffled his hair pristine, Mammoth considered for a moment that perhaps the headmaster was a vampire, he never ate never slept and never left the H.I.V.E. these thoughts were interrupted as the headmaster reached out and plucked the unconscious kid from his arms and waving him off without a word the doors snapping shut behind him, with a sigh he turned on his heel and lumbered down the hall back to Jinx' room, his rib ached from that little hit and he wanted nothing more than to collapse in bed beside his pale lover and sleep for a week, running thick fingers through his mussed hair he sighed as he remembered he had practice and gym first thing in the morning, passing a clock and noting the unholy hour of four fifteen A.M. he groaned and picked up the pace hoping against hope that Jinx would let him in again.

Brother Blood stared down at the skinny but broad shouldered form at his feet, an oddity still unconscious and unmoving his head having healed leaving no scar or line to mark its injury, he took a moment to focus his mind into a stiletto point of pure will power that nearly made itself manifest as a bare shimmer in the air and sent it hurdling into the interlopers skull seeking out his thoughts, his motives, an explanation as to why he was here, or at least how he came to be here at all, Brother Blood did not like to be left in the dark. The violence of the intrusion wrenched a scream of pain from unconscious form causing him to curl in on himself for a moment before uncurling and springing to his feet with impressive speed and alacrity, his hand jerking down for his blade even as he staggered a bit on his feet vertigo a temporary foe as his mind reeled,he scrubbed at his face a moment to discover his nose bleeding and his vision blurred, "you know" sighed Brother Blood smoothly, "there are very few people in the world at large who are as gifted as I and even fewer can defend against a concentrated assault such as the one i just inflicted upon you, i find this both frustrating and fascinating, please indulge me, where are you from and why are you here?"

Thomas stared at the gray haired man before him the white robes with gold trim were immaculate, and his eyes hard as agate as he glared down at Thomas' reeling form, his throbbing head and the churning of his stomach, both unusual feeling were off putting as he tried to come up with a coherent thought to put to words, finally he managed to slur out "I d don't know how i got here, and I'm from the burbs of Chi-town" The Robed man arched a brow as he calmly contemplated the interlopers words, "perhaps after a bit of rest and some time to recover, you'd be a bit more descriptive" Brother Blood stood quiet for a moment and sent his mind out to the nearest of his minions and guided him to his chambers when the doors whisked open he calmly ordered the man to escort their guest to one of the vacant rooms on the second level, the young man seems thrown off by this sudden change from interrogator to host, and was led dumbfounded from his chambers.

The scarlet robed man before him was silent as he led Thomas from the dark room back into the golden hallways of the facility, the broad scarlet back of the man leading him became his world as he wearily put one foot shakily in front of the other, until at last the robed man stopped and touched the wall, a soft whisk and the feel of cool still air and the robed man's hands guided him into the darkened room the door whisked closed behind him. In the darkness of his quiet cell his eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light, just enough to guide his steps to the bed against the far wall, where he collapsed upon the mattress, pulled his feet up onto the bed and curled into a tight ball hugging his legs against his breastplate, closed his eyes and concentrated on pulling himself together long enough for his long term recovery program to kick in and hurl him into deep REM while his body and mind did its best to pull itself together, all the while the magnets in his brain buzzed merrily away almost seeming to revel in the fresh flesh they had been gifted, and slowly but surely started the long walk to madness once more.

Morning found Thomas marveling at the sheer novelty of sitting in a dark room without feeling the sudden thrill of terror that once gripped his heart when the sun set, he couldn't help but laugh as his eyes adjusted turning pitch into gloom, allowing him to stare about the room, his sensitive nose was painfully aware of the rank stink of sweat that clung to his skin and clothes, and the stiffness of his limbs, the dull ache in his skull where that weirdo..., and last night came back to him with the sudden shock like a slap to the face, he was a damned kid again a teenager, a super human teenager, in an alien world, where super humans were distressingly common, he began pacing counting the steps from wall to wall hopping to find the dimensions of the room as he hunted for the light switch, before long his questing fingers found the panel beside his door a bit of fumbling and soon golden light exploded into being momentarily blinding him as he took in his new home, four walls of a dark gold metal plating, cut in octagonal sections that interconnected near seamlessly, a single rumpled bed with black covers and a pillow laying on the floor beside it, a desk on the right hand wall, and dresser, book shelf, and some kind of view screen dominating the left, the wall behind him held the way out as well as a small table and coat rack, just past the foot of his bed sat a sliding door with a pale light glowing over it abruptly the light went dim, and Tom's sharp ears caught the sound of a toilet flushing and the clack of another door beyond. "not bad", he thought "not bad at all, never been in a jail cell this nice before"

His musings were cut short however when the door behind him started to open, no longer off balance from landing on his head in a hallway or hurling through dimensional tears, the being turned into a kid thing, thats gonna take a bit to process, but he is feeling much better than before, so when he springs away from the door turning mid air and landing ready for a fight, before him stood a pair of familiar figures a petite, pale girl dressed in black lace and stripped stockings, smirking as she gazed about with bright pink eyes, behind her a wall of muscle dressed in black and gold only his bearded chin visible from the doorway, "aren't you looking spry this morning" she snarked looking rather unhappy and more than a touch tired, "the headmaster wants to see you, don't make me drag you there" growled the mountain of a man, as they stood there eyeing Thomas he couldn't help but feel nervous, the memory of his skull cracking under the big fella's arm still painfully fresh in his mind, he sighed "guess I don't have a whole lot of choice, huh?" The pale Goth smiled "exactly now move your funky but out soldier boy" she stepped aside beckoning at the doorway, Thomas sighed and with the gait of a defeated man walked out the door following the broad back of the mountain, "so uh what do they call you two?" asked Tom a bit nervously as they strolled through the halls of the facility, at first a claustrophobic's nightmare of corridors, that soon opened up into wider corridors and halls and people of all shapes and sizes rushing about, coming out of or going into various rooms that looked suspiciously like classrooms, or walking in small knots chattering about this and that, all of them dressed outlandishly, in garish colors and cuts of cloth, "and what is this place?" "This is the H.I.V.E. academy, its sort of like a less suffocating military school" explained the Goth easily, "and you can call me Jinx, that giant ahead of you is Mammoth", said giant deemed a grunt sufficient response, "uh my names Thomas, I guess you can call me Tom most people do, well that and fuck face", this elicited a laugh from Mammoth and an eye roll from Jinx, "do you have any idea what the headmaster wants with me?" inquired Tom as he slipped through a crowd of red suited clones all calling themselves Billy and conversing about the lunch menu, "didn't ask" grunted Mammoth as they reached their destination.

The imposing office doors flanked by halberd wielding guards in dark red robes, wearing black metallic masks over their faces, watched the halls impassively and made no move, and gave no indication of the presence of the students, the large red and gold doors simply swung silently open as the headmaster called out "Thomas my boy, do come in I've been waiting for you, Jinx, Mammoth I believe you have classes to attend" the odd pair gave a respectful nod to their headmaster before making their way down the hall talking in low tones amongst themselves, Tom stepped briskly into the darkened office, glancing about as the light from the large bay window shone into it showing the time to be around noon, tall bookshelves lined the walls from roof to ceiling full of old worn volumes on subjects unimaginable his eyes panned across the titles with speed taking in a few of interest as the headmaster beckoned for him to sit and make himself comfortable.

Brother Blood stared at the young man as he sat down, self consciously scratching at his arm and painfully aware of his less than flattering odor, this observation was made by reading the young man's body language, his mind remained impressively resilient to even the most subtle mental probe, finally after letting the boy fidget and squirm under his stare he relented "I understand your confusion so please feel free to ask any questions you might have" The youth wasted no time asking some interesting questions "what is this place?, and what world is this whats it called? and who are you?" The headmaster smirked, back where he could shine on the high ground of the informed, "my students have already answered your first question so i will elaborate a bit, this school is here to teach young people the finer points of using their abilities to achieve their own ends, think of it as a finishing school to ready a person for life in the wide world, as for the world it is called Earth, though you don't look like an alien, certainly your blood checks out as human, and I am Brother Blood the headmaster of this fine school you may call me either Brother Blood or headmaster, whichever you choose" now then to business, it is painfully apparent you have no idea of your whereabouts and I believe you mean my students and I no harm, though i must say your skill set is most impressive, disorientated you managed to lay low one of our top students and best fifty of my own personally trained faculty members not an easy task, i would be willing to offer you a scholarship if you like, to help you get acquainted with our world and perhaps find your place within it, there are no outsiders within these walls just one big family a family that could make good use of you, what do you say?"

Stunned by the sheer volume of the information jammed into her brain Thomas sat stunned, "well I have no where else to go and I have no idea how this world works, headmaster i accept you offer." Brother Blood smiled above his steepled fingers, "excellent! I'll have a schedule written out for you and inform your teachers, I trust you have a basic education? Any second languages or advanced learning?" Thomas scrubbed his fingers along the aligned studs scowling at the reminder of his metal pseudo-hawk, I can speak and write English, and i can speak a bit of Spanish, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but thats about it, i can fix up wiring and jery rig simple electronics too" the headmaster nodded, "better than most" he sighed, writing up a missive and spiriting it to the administrative department, as he reached into his desk and withdrew an octagonal device from the drawer, "here take this think of it as a personal planner/cell phone, it'll remind you of when you have classes and let your teachers give you grief if you fail to show up, it also has a map of the grounds to give you an idea of where you are, now feel free to look around get acquainted with your classmates, take a shower!" Ears burning Thomas barely managed to utter out a "thanks headmaster" as he made his way to the door in a rush.

Thomas nearly collided with a black cloaked fella with dark red eyes and a wild outfit, well that is until the guy vanished into a black whirl of energy only to appear further down the hall, leaving Thomas startled but chuckling the red eyed kid narrowed his eyes at Tom before moving on, "y'all must be new here" crowed a Texan drawl, Tom turned to stare at the guys in red jump suits "th' name's Billy, Billy Numerous" tapping the division symbol on his chest, the ten of them circled around Tom who understandably felt boxed in "that sure is some fancy armor eh Billy? shore is Billy, think maybe we should get some armor like that there Billy? I shore as heck think so, make us look macho, ain't that right Billy?" the other Billy's followed with several "yups" and "uh-huhs" Rolling his eyes Thomas stepped forward in a blur of motion slamming his right fist into the belly of the lead Billy and proceeded to hammer home the "don't tread on me" point of this beating, in short order twelve Billy's lay groaning on the ground in heaps of discomfort and bloody noses.


	2. Chapter Two or School days School daze

Chapter Two or The first day of school...again

As first days go it wasn't that bad, the first guy to pick a fight was annoying more than anything else, and after one beating he left well enough alone, having come from a less hospitable world Thomas was astounded by the plethora of wealth so freely available to the students of this school, free clean water hot and cold, semi private bathing facilities, laundry facilities, hot tasty food in seemingly limitless portions, life in the H.I.V.E. is good!

Thankfully the faculty didn't seem to hold a grudge, of course they also didn't have alot to say either way they seemed all consumed with their duties, they didn't speak, they didn't smile they simply wandered the corridors calmly attending to their duties, which seemed to be cleaning, and general maintenance, repairing the damage that the students seemed to cause whether by accident or by choice, and the students it seemed that the variety was endless, some made of metal or stone, wearing robes or fine suits, some not even resembling humans, for the most part the classes seemed designed to show the students how to make best use of their abilities to commit crimes or to make themselves useful to others who wish to commit crimes, proper methods with which to take and hold a hostage, how to kidnap a target from a high security area.

Of course all of that was to take place after an orientation period, a period of time in which one of the faceless robed figures stood before him with many demanding questions concerning his abilities, their source, their limits and after the question answer portion of the interview came a small stint in a rather fun obstacle course, filled with tread mills and hurdles, and a few combat robots that admittedly caused some small concern for our hero, though that concern vanished when he hauled back and swung a somewhat uncoordinated but very powerful haymaker straight at its midsection and tore the mechanical man rather messily in half, then came the more hazardous portion of the obstacle course a trio of turrets popped out of the wall and started firing with no warning save the sudden flicker motion from the wall panels as they emerged, with reflexes born of experience and augmented synapses, Tom bent left, then right, and flung himself back to handspring to the opposite side of the room overturning a nearby table to use as cover, the turrets proved to be non-lethal as the energy beams failed to penetrate the thin barrier offered by the table, gripping a table leg in each hand he used the handy bit of furniture as mobile cover as he advanced on the wall mounted guns, three hard kicks later the wall turrets returned violently to their housing smoking and sparking in the walls.

Feeling satisfied with his performance he dropped the table and clapped his hands free of the dust and grime that had accumulated on them, the passive look from the robed instructors face however popped a little hole in his confidence balloon, after the introductory test he was ushered into several classes whose primary goal seemed to be infiltration, observation, and security system analysis, the former gave him a great deal of difficulty as laser alarm networks and multi stage triggering systems sounded alot more complicated than saying "the doors alarmed, but the case is alarmed as well". And then there was combat practice, oh glorious combat practice, duckin an dodgin and knocking the heads off robots, a novel experience to be sure, watching the other students in action was an awe inspiring thing, if only for the unusual methods involved, Jinx the purple haired Goth would simply stand in place or perhaps turn the odd cartwheel to avoid debris and energy blasts as her robotic enemies flashed purple and simply fell apart or exploded, Gizmo the bald midget, seemed to have blasters and explosives of all shapes and sizes, reminding Thomas painfully of the fact that his weapons had yet to be returned to him, Mammoth was brutally simple, smashing and destroying everything in has path without pause or consideration, true to his namesake he was a brute.

The school's reaction to him was a sort of disdainful neutrality, a few people approached him in odd ways, Billy Numerous was the most direct, simply walking up in a friendly group of four and offering a hand and an introduction with a wide grin, Thomas accepted the hand and gave a firm shake introducing himself as Thomas Maclandon, which caused Billy to laugh and explain that everyone here had a "Villain Name" something to identify them but keep who they really were anonymous should they decide to retire one day. Lunatic was the name assigned to him by the headmaster after that the hows and whys of this choice lay beyond Thomas' ability to reason so he simply accepted it as part of the ever increasing strangeness of this world.

Over the next month and a half Lunatic lost himself in classes and training, homework something he hadn't experienced before proved to be a difficult concept to grasp which caused his instructors no end of grief, his studies remained at a relative low curve as he struggled to acclimatize himself to this new place, his classmates didn't seem to interested in aiding him in this endeavor, well with the exception of his dorm mates, Kyd Wykkyd, Private Hive, and Billy Numerous, Kyd was defiantly the dorm mate he had the least in common with, simply put he was strange quiet, brooding, and he never spoke never laughed, he simply stayed in the room near the darkest corner or by the door as though expecting to have to leave at any moment, Billy seemed the most easy going interested in video games and almost any kind of sport, he was a team of one after all (well one that rapidly became hundreds) and he was generally a good sport, though he didn't like to lose, Private Hive or P.H. as he was called off duty was as intense as they come driven to succeed in all things he proved to be diligent in his studies and his training and some how managed to find the time to help Lunatic with his studies, and while he lacked the augmentation he managed to prove a challenging opponent, Tough, fast, and able to take a ton of punishment and while he couldn't dodged Lunatics attacks he was skilled enough to get that heavy golden shield of his between almost any attack thrown his way, all told life was pretty good for our erst while hero.

Gizmo fumed in his well lit room leaning over his work table taking apart the weapons of that snot eating muck sniffer, Brother Blood wanted to figure out how this stuff worked the rifle was easy enough, an elector magnetic particle emitter ,high end but nothing he hadn't seen before, the Knife was likewise simple a micro sonic generator that caused the blade to shift a fraction of a millimeter in rapid pulses allowing the blade to cut upwards of two thousand times per second, that in itself wasn't weird, the fact that whatever the knife was made of could stand up to that much vibration without damaging itself or dulling immediately was the issue, it was made of some kind of ceramic but denser and more durable than pressure treated carbon steel with one eighth of the weight, it required a weeks work and the destruction of a particle collider to acquire a sample that was viable, and a further week just to start identifying the molecular structure, to Gizmo this was unheard of his tech was the best there was and anything that worked better he could figure out in no time, it wasn't that the material was complicated it was just too damned durable, he sighed and rubbed his tired eyes as the sounds of intimacy started up again in Mammoth's room, crud! he mumbled, don't those two ever stop, he walked out of his room making his way to the cafeteria intent on drowning his exhaustion in coffee.

The lights in the halls were brighter than he cared for, not helping the throbbing in his skull, Billy Numerous and the muck sniffer in question, now calling himself Lunatic, ugh though Gizmo as they moved out of his way, he continued his grumbling way down to the cafeteria the faculty members accommodated his request for a pot of coffee and a mug, he made his way back to his room, and to the mind numbing task ahead of him after all Brother Blood had entrusted him to this task, and much as he hated it he hated to disappoint brother blood even more.


	3. Chapter Three or The Great Escape

It should come as no surprise to anyone that separating a warrior from his weapons is like having an open wound on your back, you have trouble doing anything without that comforting weight resting upon your shoulders, the chair you sit upon feels uneven, you cant sleep you feel too naked, you are keenly aware of the gaze of others on your back, and where to flee should things go amiss. In Thomas(Lunatic) this translated into vivid nightmares, in his dreams Mammoth managed to crush his skull, he was unable to fend off the faculty members and was beaten to death, Gizmo managed to fry him, after every dream he would sit up bathed in sweat and shaking, his body telling him that there was a threat in the room his eyes saying there was nothing of the sort after the third attempt at sleep Lunatic rose from his bed a clean robe in his hands and made his way to the dorm's tiny showering stall.

The hot water cascading town his scarred back and pattering off the line of dime sized studs adorning his head seemed to wash away the unease brought on by the dreams, "two months now" he thought "Two very strange months since i arrived at this bizarre world, where everyone seems to possess powers and skills well outside the norm, everyone can read and write, has clean food and water, and is under the tutelage of competent instructors, even if the classes are all related to super villainy, and after all this time my weapons remain confiscated..." a Texan twang drawled out "y'all gonna be long? I need ta spruce up a bit afore we head out, gonna have a ball in town tonight I reckon" Lunatic perked up at this, "your going out? tonight? uh what time is it? I've been trying to sleep for what feels like days" stepping out of the still running shower an leaving the door open for Billy as he accepted a proffered towel, stepping aside to allow his dorm mate into the unoccupied stall as he started wiping himself down all the while Billy chattered about his plans. "First me an Private Hive 'r gonna hit the mall see whats shakin down there maybe grab a bite and a few odds and ends depending if somethin catches or eye ya know? then we're gonna wander down ta this new car dealership, the one that just opened up last weekend remember? well boy lemme tell ya, there are some sweet rides down there me, m'self, and I plan to see what we cant take offa their hands, you wanna come? Cause I know you ain't been outta these gleamin, golden walls since ya done showed up, wadda ya say Luney you in?" Lunatic sighed as he scrubbed his hair dry and polished his locater studs, finally he shrugged "ok why the hell not, lets get this show on the road Billy!" The hooting and hollering from the bathroom caused Kyd Wykkyd to stare at the closed door worriedly, sliding his hand into the darkness under his pillow he reached through the shadows of his room and from the shade of a conveniently placed night blooming vine his hand reached the door's lock and keyed it into place sealing himself off from his deranged dorm mates.

Within fifteen minutes Private Hive, about five Billy Numerous, and one very excited Lunatic crawling through a ventilation duct on their way to the surface, the tight confines proving to be easily traversed by the Billy's and Lunatic, however P.H. was having a bit of difficulty being the tallest by a good three inches and the largest, out weighing Lunatic and Billy by almost a stone, plus his shield and body armor caught on various struts and rivets, until one of the Billy's offered to carry his shield smoothing the process a bit, despite P.H.'s grumbling about being out of uniform. "Are you sure you know where your going?" hissed P.H. as they made yet another left and didn't appear to be going up hill anymore, "sure we're sure" replied the Billy's in stereo as they made *another* left, this one leading some how to a dead end, Lunatic by this point had no idea where they were, the vent shafts were surprisingly clean, free of dust and vermin, but after an hour the novelty of clean duct was wearing painfully thin and staring at Billy's backside was old loooong ago, staring up the shaft at their apparent dead end the lead Billy piped up "ok boys we're here", and abruptly there was only one Billy who stood up in the vertical shaft and suddenly gained the power of flight as his feet left the ground. "You guys gonna need a hand gettin up here" called down a gaggle of Billys, Lunatic braced his hand and feet against opposite sides of the shaft and shimmied up to the Billy's eye level in a few moments proclaiming himself in no need of a hand as he toed his way into the larger duct, now technically a maintenance tunnel, standing amongst the small gang of Billys looking down at the yellow clad form of P.H. almost three stories below, "oh come on!" he griped as he followed suit with a bit more difficulty and only slightly less speed. Soon the trio (if you didn't count the extra Billys) stood on the darkened shores of Jump City bay, staring up at the lights of the busy city Lunatic loosed an impressed whistle, "ain't she a purdy sight" crowed the Billys excitedly it was then that Lunatic pointed to the immense "T" sitting in the middle of the bay glowing golden in the gloom of the ocean.

"What the hell is that?" asked a confounded Lunatic as he openly gaped at the seemingly impossible structure rising above the dark waves. "That", said an openly disgusted P.H. "is the enemy stronghold home of the Teen Titans" the Billy's all nodded, a few making obscene gestures at the tower. "What? in the middle of the ocean, in plain view, open to all manner of attack from both land sea and air" exclaimed a startled Lunatic, "yup' was the general consensus, "how have they uh remained the enemy all this time?" enquired a bemused Lunatic. "biggest pack of tricky losers this side of anywhere, lucky as sin too" drawled the lead Billy as the group moved on to the city pier making their way to the busy streets at an easy walk, "their CO is quite the tactician" commented P.H. "and one heck of a fighter could probably plant, you on your backside" Lunatic let this roll around in his head a few moments taking in the sights of the clean prosperous city with its rather unassuming population, most didn't bat an eye at their costumed group, others scurried out of their way as they approached some risking a hasty jog across the street as the Billy's hooted and jeered at any who crossed their path, "shouldn't we be proceeding with a bit more caution if they are so tough?" asked Lunatic as they marched their way towards the Holly berry shopping center, Billy had spread out now almost fifty of him roaming over and around parked cars, setting off alarms and breaking windows as they passed, P.H. had his shield secured to his left arm, "keeping a low profile is for the infiltrators and buglers, we are the movers and shakers that do the damage!" with that he proceeded to overturn a family sized four door sedan.

"What on earth are those idiots doing?" thought Raven as she flew through the air, stopping above the Holly berry mall's parking lot watching as the army of red clad villains wrought havoc amongst the parked cars of the evening shoppers she adjusted her leotard and shook out her cloak as, with a flicker of thought, she drew out her communicator, "never a quiet night in this place" she sighed, "Raven calling Beastboy" droned the dusky sorceress, "are you at the mall by any chance?" "B.B. here, Cyborg too, we're in the food court whats the beef Rae?" "My name is Raven" she growled irritated "and we have a bit of a public disturbance out in the parking lot, looks like some kind of gang, the usual, vandalism, disturbing the peace, lousy fashion sense" "On our way Rae!" chirped Beastboy as he watched Cyborg wolf down his fourth chillidog, "seriously dude! meat with meat sauce! I mean come on, now your just being mean" whined the green changeling as he leapt from his seat making a beeline for the main entrance (in this case exit) morphing seamlessly into a green raven to better avoid the milling crowd of the mall's main thorough fare, the six foot eight bionic man just belched his response noisily at the retreating form of his shape shifting best friend "if you didn't want to see me eat you shoulda just got your nasty salad and gone on home, its self inflicted torture near as i can tell, so quit your griping COMMIN THROUGH!" he finished parting the crowd as though it were the red sea and he had a beard, staff and ten thousand Jewish slaves at his back.

The Billy's, having stumbled upon a shiny new red sports car were in the process of trying to hotwire it, loudly arguing about how it was done as Lunatic and P.H. stood nearby smirking at the one man army bickering with himself, four of them had jammed themselves in the bucket seats each claiming to know which wire to cross to get the thing going "its the red one Billy!" snapped one, "naw I'm tellin ya Billy its the blue one its always the blue one" drawled another, "now why in tarnation would it be th' blue one when its a red car?" asked the third Billy confused, "th' color of the car don't matter none Billy I'm tellin you its the red 'un" insisted the first Billy, "well what about that there black one Billy? whats it do?" asked the fourth Billy curiously. It was at this point that the whole car was sheathed in a dark aura and plucked soundlessly from the ground doors slamming shut and trapping the four Billy's inside who immediately started hollering and cussing as the car started to shake like a maraca violently rattling the four Billy's inside, the doors then burst open and the four would be car jackers found themselves free falling into the midst of their little red army.

Raven watched the green bird come into focus as it passed through the outer doors of the mall and proceeded to glide over the parking lot, observing the chaos below, her mind searched amidst the noise of the city and found the sometimes simplistic thoughts of her green teammate "I wonder where they get their outfits?" he mused as he passed over head to land on the sorceress' shoulder ruffling his feathers a bit as the stiff sea breeze caught him, Cyborg was close behind as Raven concentrated on the car and its unlawful occupants, a flicker of thought sealed tight the doors, and a small effort of will hoisted the car into the air, and perhaps channeling her shape shifting teammate for a moment (proximity plus empath equals quirks) she started jostling the car about like a rattle in the hands of the infant causing an eruption of howled curses, before she emptied the expensive vehicle of its unwanted guests depositing it in nearby empty space. "I don't believe that belongs to you" she addressed the mob below her, amusement wafting like spring blossoms from her shoulder as the green raven adjusted its grip readying to leap free of the sorceress.

"Uh P.H. who are these guys?" asked an amused Lunatic watching Billy literally collect himself from the pavement, "those would be the Teen Titans, Lunatic" barked P.H. as he hunkered down amidst the cars readying himself for a brawl it seems, Lunatic stood his ground watching the dark sorceress and her weird green familiar hover mid air as the Billy's collected themselves, thats when the nearly seven foot tall borg came into view and a tiny sliver of doubt lanced into Lunatics being as he reached for his particle beam rifle and found it still missing, "oh man ya'll 'r in for a world of hurt" growled the borg as he stood easily above the Billy's a towering metallic juggernaut amidst the all too delicate flesh of his multiplied friend, "Billy" breathed Lunatic to the Billy beside him, "pull back and head for the pier I'll try and buy us a bit of time we cant take this guy", the Billy's (all of them) turned and looked back at him "sure we can" they laughed "we got him out numbered" and thats when the borg raised his right arm and proceeded to destroy a hundred foot swath of the parking lot.

The little switch in Lunatics head kicked in a heart beat before it all went down, and as the borg was raising his arm, Lunatic was moving, grabbing P.H. and one of the Billys and bodily hurling them three lanes to the right as the blast decimated everything in its path scattering the larger portion of the crowd of Billys and overturning cars, his dorm mates (friends?) out of harms way Lunatic attempted to throw himself free with partial success only managing to get clipped by the blast which sent him sliding across the hood of the car behind him and slammed him into the car past that, his head ringing Lunatic staggered to his feet in time to see P.H. hammer his meaty fist into the head of a large green wolf, the Billy's were piling onto the borg battering at him with fists feet and anything else they could get their hands on, meanwhile the sorceress remained airborne drifting over the scene in the lotus position sending knots of Billy's in every direction with explosions of that strange black energy, the trumpet of an elephant actually made Lunatic jump as out of no where a wooly mammoth towered over P.H. its long trunk snaking around his midsection and slamming him into the roof of a minivan bursting all four tires and flattening the roof.

Liquid fire started hammering into Lunatic's brain, flowing from his neck, down his arms into his chest and finally cascading to his legs, ah yes the sweet sweet bite of adrenalin flooding his system, the world slowing the blood hammering in his ears, oh yeah a proper fight, and weapons or no he wasn't about to be left out, dropping to one knee and thrusting his hands under the two door car he had been leaning against, he tipped it up on its side then sliding under it hoisted the vehicle over his head with a grunt of exertion, turning shakily on his heel he shouted over the din "Billy! get your asses outta the way!" and with that hurled the half ton collection of aluminum, plastic and steel at the bionic Titan, the sorceress too startled to react barely managed to call out to her bionic teammate as the car arced through the air and into the rapidly scattering crowd of red dressed men, and with a deafening crash, flattened her teammate into the pavement.

Beastboy, turned mammoth stared for a moment seeing his best friend caught blind sided by an airborne car, whirled on the culprit who dared strike him, and with a thunder of heavy treaded feet charged trumpeting his rage and plowing through or stomping flat anything that got between him and revenge. Raven in a panic cast her senses to the older Titan beneath the wreckage , finding him stunned but unhurt, restrained her feeling of relief and yanked the wreckage off of his metallic frame, the now scuffed form of her teammate rose to its feet and shot her a grateful smile as he raised his right arm and proceeded to loose another blast into the milling group of strangely dressed men named Billy, scattering them like litter in a wind storm, she whirled on the man responsible for her concern in time to see Beastboy over turn several cars in an attempt to catch the villain, his mammoth form proving to be too bulky to land a proper blow on the armored guy in front of him, Beastboy became Deinonychus(think velociraptor) and lunged at his agile opponent catching the man mid air and bringing him down on the hood of a truck latching on with his fore claws screeching across his breastplate and his rear claws slicing into his legs, the man forced his arm guard into Beastboy's toothy maw to prevent him from gaining purchase on anything softer or more vital as they struggled.

Private Hive groaned in pain as he slowly worked himself free of the wreckage of the minivan, his head ringing and his back hurting to all heck "what hit me?" he grumbled as he forced his way through the twisted remains of the van's roof, vision fuzzy, "likely concussion" he mused detachedly as he watched the scene before him unfold, they were definitely losing this fight already Billy was running, well several of them were most stayed behind distracting Cyborg and Raven while he made his getaway "c'mon" whispered a Billy hidden in the shadows of the van's wreckage and the stomped car beside it "we gotta git while the gettins good" already the Billy was skulking off towards the pier, as P.H. settled onto the pavement favoring his right leg and crouching where the Billy had just vacated, Lunatic was struggling with Beastboy, who had turned into some kind of dinosaur and already the Billy's were starting to pop out of existence, weighing the odds and feeling an odd pang of guilt that had never happened to him before Private Hive, thunked his aching head against the mashed car next to him and got to his feet, taking a deep breath he hauled back and hurled his shield at the thrashing green changeling's back.

Lunatic could feel the knife like claws slicing into his lower legs as the green saurian vigorously jerked his arm about trying to break the limb and get at the softer bits the smaller claws gracing his forelimbs had found purchase under his right arm and sunk into the flesh of his left shoulder under the pauldron, "goddamned dino's always scratching the paint" grit out Lunatic as the beast thrashed eagerly claws digging deeper, when abruptly a resounding *THWACK* broke over the mixture of growls and curses, and he suddenly had an unconscious green skinned kid biting his arm guard and his shoes were grinding into the bleeding limbs beneath them, the clang of P.H.'s shield striking the pavement giving evidence as to whom he owed this respite too, Lunatic glanced to his left and right painfully aware that he was alone with the Teen Titans, his team nowhere to be seen. "I'm gonna say this once put the green kid down nice and slow or I'm gonna pull your arms off" the seven foot borg stood less than twenty feet away and was closing in slowly circling around wreckage to get a better line of fire with that big cannon of his, as the sorceress flared with that strange blacker than blackness energy of hers.

Rolling to his feet green shape shifter in hand Lunatic glanced about for an escape route, painfully aware of the fact he was bleeding badly, "alright alright i was just trying to enjoy a night on the town didn't plan on picking a fight" with the adrenalin still running hell mell through his veins it was hard to take the threat of the metal man seriously, "CATCH!" shouted Lunatic as he hurled the green teen at the sorceress, leaping off the truck and bolting full speed towards the street and the lovely rolling cover that is nighttime traffic. Raven caught Beastboy out of the air with a flicker of thought her mind heavy with concern for the green teen hanging suspended before her, "is B.B. alright Rae?" asked the metallic Titan standing below her, a moment to check showed him to have a nasty lump but no other injury, with an inward sigh of relief she pulled her hood low over her face obscuring violet eyes "don't call me Rae" she droned, as she flew after the rapidly retreating armored figure, fury simmering beneath a thin veneer of control she raced after the speeding villain, and a short while later the squeal of rubber signaled Cyborg had joined the chase as well.

Unwinding a twisted piece of the destroyed car that had so recently knocked him for a loop Cyborg activated his communicator intent on signaling their leader "Robin we have a runner heading west from the Holly berry shopping center towards the Village, he's hurt bad and still running any chance of an assist or are you an your girlfriend makin out again?" a moments pause followed as the sound of clothing being adjusted was heard "Me and Star will meet you at the Village try to keep him there I've already called the authorities they should have the area cleared before you get there, Robin out". With a sigh Cyborg settled into the seat of his baby almost unconsciously nipping between cars as traffic started to lighten considerably, Raven was still in sight as was B.B. who seemed to be coming around, Rae reached back to rest a glowing left hand on the green changeling forehead without diverting her gaze from her quarry, the armored figure of the bleeding man was managing to keep a steady speed of forty four miles per hour, no Kid Flash but pretty impressive for anyone, the fact he could leap clean over most traffic meant he kept ahead of the T-car pretty handily but only by a thin margin, that is until he pulled a ninety degree turn at a dead run and bolted straight into a store front window sending an explosion of glass onto the sidewalk.


	4. Chapter Four or Comming home

As it happened leaping through a pane glass window with open wounds is a bad idea now sporting glass shards all over her person, he tumbled into a chinese grocery, knocking over a few shelves as he stumbled in the dark taking half a second to gain his bearings three long rows of shelves stocked to the brim with odds and ends, the back counter covered in lotto ticket and ciggies, leaping behind the counter he grabbed up a partially full box of cigars from the humidor, as he closed the door he spotted a discarded baseball bat resting against the wall near the cash register, with a slight grin he grabbed it up before charging for the rear exit, just as he touched the door handle, he felt the precognitive twitch that half felt half heard sense that tells you something is off, instictivly he lept to the right, straight through a display case, and clear of a pile of shelves that violently crashed against the portal to freedom, glancing back he spotted the dark figure of the sorceress floating serenely in the air before the grocery's broken window a frown of concentration on her face as the green changling flickered into existance beside her, "give up you can't escape" commanded the goth, "dude you are sooo busted" her green companion chortled, the squeel of tires just behind the duo and the sudden appearance of a strange blue and white car completed the scene, the borg stepping out of the drivers side and standing to his full impressive height, he smirked the human protions of his face seemed to curl into the expression, glancing left and right finding only balls and the doors of a stand up cooler in the corner Lunatic sighed "as first nights off campus go, i have to say this could have gone alot worse" the Trio of heroes passed a glance at each other confusion evident on thier faces.

Lunatic decided that trying to take on a magician, a shape shifter who could become most any sort of creature imaginable, and a full conversion cyborg with nothing but a louis ville slugger and a box of fine cigars would probably be less than successful, still the banter gave him enough time to get his bearings within the store, "Robin we got him cornered at Yum Kim's chinese grocery" said the blue and white borg into his left arm, "thanks for the heads up we'll be there soon Robin out" crackled back over the communicator as the faint strains of police sirens started to cry out over the din of the city, thumping the bat against his shoulder Lunatic grinned widely and with a cheery salute, whirled around lashing out with his right leg and knocking down the wall behind him in an explosion of timber and gyprock, before darting through the cloud of debris and into the back room and out the fire exit into the alley beyond.

"Cyborg to Robin, he's on the move again" sighed the eldest Titan in frustration "what is with this guy?" he exclaimed annoyed as he raced for the T-car to continue the pursuit, Beast boy knelt down extending his gloved fingers to the dark splash on the side walk the white fabric comming away crimson, "I don't think he'll be running too much longer" he whispered unhappily, pale grey fingers alighted upon his shoulders comfortingly before the purple cloaked empath lifted off the ground and took to the sky once more to continue the pursuit, with a final glance back at the destroyed store Beastboy became a raven once more and took to the air, following the sorceress.

Lunatic's entrance into the alley could be described as less than graceful crashing through the heavy wooden door at breaknecks speeds tore it from its hinges and sent it careening into the opposite wall of the alleyway a quick glance left and right confirmed the vacancy of the back street and the presence of a dozen good hiding places, head reeling from bloodloss and clutching his prize in a death grip he staggered to the left of the doorway back the way he came counting the dumpsters as he jogged when he reached the fifth he opened the lid and lept inside closing it after him landing in a pile of cardboard and loose shredded paper, grinning at his good fortune he sprawled out and spent a few moments catching his breath before closing his eyes and initiated his healing trance.

The large green floppy faced bloodhound wuffed quietly to the figures behind him pointing(you've seen dogs do it before dont lie!) to the dumpster which was adorned with a red smear on its front, "I still cant believe he doubled back" muttered Cyborg as he leveled his sonic cannon at the dumpster, "I can't beleive he didnt get farther than a hundred yards from the store" murmured the empath her eyes glowing beneath her hood, a few droplets of rain pattered against the lids of the dumpsters and trashcans as the sound of the R-cycle could be heard whinning its way down the street likely tracking the signal of the communicators, "Alright come outta the dumpster nice and slow and we can have you in a comfortable jail cell for a couple years" called Cyborg firmly, Beastboy returned to is usual form and glanced back at Cy "what makes you think he can even hear you he was bleeding pretty bad *before* he ran across half the city and kicked down a wall" with that Raven reached out with her power and yanked open the dumpster lid and rose higher into the air to get a better vantage not chancing getting in reach of the baseball bat, the moment the lids crashed open Lunatic's armored form exploaded from the dumpster, using the edge of the opening to get better leverage he vaulted from the trash recpeticle and easily fifteen feet into the air straight for the airbourne sorceress, Raven reacted with barely a thought placing a thick wall of utter blackness betwixt her and the oncomming attack stopping the blow dead, only to be startled as thier assailant used her barier as a launching point for a second leap onto a nearby fire escape on the opposite side of the alley begining his hell mell run up the metal stairs towards the roof. "I don't think he's bleeding out" drawled cyborg needlessly as he launched a grapnel line at the rooftop and launched himself upwards with his high speed winch, Beastboy rolled his eyes then squeeked as he felt himself lifted from the ground upon a disk of black energy.

Robin sighed as the blips on the R-cycle's radar once again started moving, Starfire gliding beside him smiled reassuringly her vibrant green eyes filled with an almost worried look as she glanced at the radar, her motions seemed almost casual as she maintained the R-cycles seventy mile per hour speed with ease, "Friend Robin should I join our friends in the pursuit of this villian? he seems to be of the slippery type" Robin steering his bike between cars with a practiced ease nodded "yeah try to cut him off he's taken to the rooftops and he's fast I'm going to circle around and see if i can block his escape a bit further down" Starfire nodded "be safe" she beemed and took to the sky darting off into the city at just beneath the speed of sound eliciting an unseen but envious grin from her team leader, who gunned his engine leaping into high gear and speeding through the city streets.

"Well" thought Lunatic as he lept from rooftop to roof top maintaining his breakneck run without the bother of blood loss or injured legs, "this is certianly a bit better than the last little jog through the city, now how on earth do i lose these guys?" His internal musings were interupted by a sudden explosion to his left that sent him flying, twisting mid air and rolling with the impact he was on his feet a tick after the blast scanning the rooftops for this new assailant, four points of light beyond the smoking blast point gave him ample evidence as to where the explosive projectile came from, "oh god dammnit" whined Lunatic "can't you people just bug off i mean come on there has to be more dangerous idiots out there than me the only thing I've done tonight is get knocked around by you guys and its getting old really fast", the form of a tall orange skinned and rather attractive girl drifted through the smoke here eyes burning a rather nerve rattling green, her hands sheathed in the same "if this chase has become a bother than surrender and accept your incarceration" commanded the flying orange girl. "Uh is there a second option? cause i really don't have the time to spend sitting around a jail cell, I mean seriously i don't know how long i have to kick around this burb, on that note do you know any brain surgeons?"

The litany of babbling of this strange armored man was providing confused Starfire somewhat, her brow arched in irritation and impatience as she watched her teammates making there way towards her, casting a weather eye on the chattering armored boy before her, the strange metal disks cutting a line down the middle of his head were gaudy even to her eyes, and the armor looked like it belonged in a war zone not the city streets, it further lacked any distictive coloration he had also failed to give a name or some manner with which to address him an unusual occurance, since most villians she had faced seemed to enjoy saying thier own name repeatedly, the twitchy slightly qwirky grin that was stretched across his face however that she was familiar with. Lunatic sighed and tossed the baseball bat end over end into the air catching it by the handle as the weird orange girl waited for her companions to arrive, already calculating the distance between himself and the floating teen he decided that thirty feet was a reasonable distance and hurled himself at her bat raised to strike, she flinched at the sudden movement unable to react as the heavy wooden sporting implement screamed towards her unprotected stomach, the jarring impact on Lunatics end was incredible as he felt the fire hardened wood expload against her midsection sending a shower of splinters everywhere and failing to even phase the alien who swung her glowing fist at his head almost in irritation his powerful swing failing to even move her.

Twitching out of the way of her glowing fist Lunatic took a moment to stare at his handy work, or lack there of, not a scratch not a bump not a bruise hell barely a reaction, unles you count her swinging back but really who wouldnt, though she seemed to take offense at this sudden attack and started tearing shit up, the enraged Tamaranian snarled in fury at the insulting blow and flew at him, her glowing fist cocked back before unleashing a mighty blow, Lunatic flung himself free of the attack rolling to his feet as the orange girl smashed through the room like it was wet paper bursting back into view a moment later, during that moment Lunatic beat a hasty retreat with a loudly cursing Starfire hot on his heels hurling star bolts and insults (mostly in her language), forcing Lunatic to leap, flip, spin, and finally abandon the rooftops in favor of the superior cover provided by the buildings, hurling down to the window ledge of the building across the street in a desperate leap he managed to crash through the window and into an appartment scaring the hell out of the family of three that was currently enjoying the evening news, Lunatic lept over the couch bound trio with a shouted "sorry!" dropping the box of cigars in the mother's lap as he passed over head and darted towards the door the angry orange teen following after pausing a moment to appologise as well, before taking off after the rapidly fleeing boy in armor, crashing through the appartments locked door, nipping up the prybar left beside it as he passed, grinning as the heavy oil treated steel sat more comfortably in his hands he darted to the right making a beeline for the end of the hall his sharp hearing informing him of the orange girls rapid approach, he dropped to the floor sliding and tearing up the aged well trodden carpet with his armor and prybar as the fuming orange girl shot past him at break neck speed, he smashed through the door on his left and made his way through the cluttered appartment beyond finding the window open he sprang nimbly through it as the furious alien appeared in the doorway hurling a bolt of angry green explosive energy after him.

The explosion hurled Lunatic back across the street and straight into the wall of the brick building adjacent, he managed to twist mid air and prevent any grevious injury by landing against the wall feet first turning into an almost lazy mid air somersault as he crashed through the roof of a newsstand.

Beastboy, Raven and Cyborg stood on the rooftop staring down at the destroyed newsstand and the figure currently kicking his way free of the wreckage, "what is with this guy" muttered Beastboy in disbelief, "I don't know" murmured raven calmly "but if we don't stop him he's going to wreck the whole city". Cyborg stared down his augmented left eye panning over the cursing armored form below, "I don't know what his deal is but his heart rate, body tempature are off the chart, if he's human he should be dead right now" Beastboy shruged "I've seen robin do this stuff plenty of times,he's probably some kind of super ninja or something like that Kotaro guy Robin was dealing with way back when" Raven sighed in frustration "we can speculate the hows and whys of the criminal later right now he is trying to get away", at this point Lunatic had shaken off most of the depris, and lept from the wreckage shaking his head, glancing up and seeing the trio on the roof above him and glancing back the glowing eyes of the orange girl still in the appartment he groaned "how many of you people are there?" the roar of the R-cycle drowned out his complain as a black haired boy in a mask lept from the saddle of the bike to land before him, "are you going to come along quietly or am i going to have to bring you in the hard way?"

Scrubbing his hands through his short hair in frustration Lunatic bellowed "ok seriously fuck off I havent even been out here two hours and already I've been blasted, mauled, lept through a window, destroyed a grocery store, hid in a dumpster, been chased up a fire escape, chased across half of this city, and now some guy dressed like he's going to a halloween party pulls up and tells me he's going to bring me in, ugh, ok you know what it was fun, that first bit there with the borg and Billy and P.H. having a little fun and all but I'm getting a little pissed off here" Robin drew his staff and whirled it over his head before taking a fighting stance and grinning cockily "sorry your visit to Jump City has been so frustrating why dont you cool off in a jail cell and collect your thoughts?" and with a battle cry hurled himself at Lunatic stave arcing towards Luney's studded skull with the speed and precision born of long practice and great skill, sadly the blow was caught. Lunatic snatched the stave from a startled robin frowning at him, "are you super durable cause I'd rather not paste a squishy on my first night out if i can avoid it" he examined the staff curiously even as Robin hurled himself towards his opponent lashing out with a speedy round house kick already calculating the next four moves in his head as Lunatic ducked the attack he was startled to find that the "squishy" masked kid had some moves, the round house kick turned into a sweeping kick forcing Lunatic to leap back out of reach, "Star, NOW!" shouted the masked kid before he had even touched the ground he spotted the brilliant green sun rocketing towardshis possition "oh you guys suck" groaned Lunatic as the explosion hurled him down the street and into a lamp post, "Raven!" shouted the masked kid once more, the lamp post turned black and bent around Lunatic's torso holding him firmly in place.

Robin strode over to the bound armored form before him collecting his stave and colapsing it down to a more readily stored length. "Good work team" he smiled up at the other titans a sense of pride filling him as he looked upon the fuming and surprisingly consious form of thier opponent, "anything to say for yourself?" he asked still grinning, "no not really" muttered Lunatic as he eyed the red motor bike, "so what kind of milage does that thing get anyway?" he grinned. Suddenly jerking foreward snapping the lamp post loose from its housing in the sidewalk, the curled at the waist smashing the lamp post upon the now vacant section of sidewalk robin had occupied just a moment before, with a grunt of exertion Lunatic managed to bend the twisted lamp post enough to get free only to hurl himself away as a rain of green suns exploaded all around him, he launched himself back into the wreckage of the newsstand scrabbling about for a moment before finding the discarded prybar and leaping free as a combination of green energy bolts and blasts from the borg's arm cannon reduced what was left of the stand to flaming rubble. Spotting his target Lunatic leapt into the middle of the street hammering the prybar into the edge of the manhole cover nearly blown off his feet by a near miss from an energy bolt, he yanked hard on the bar and the lid burst from its housing sending the fifty pound metal disk spinning into the air end over end like a coin, reaching out he caught he heavy pig iron lid and hurled it frisbee style straight into the masked kid's bike the explosion was quite impressive, actually knocking the masked kid off his feet and buying him the time he needed to drop into the tunnels beneath the city streets.


	5. Chapter Five or God Bless this Broken

"Leaping blindly into a random maintenance shaft perhaps wasnt the best idea" mused Thomas(Lunatic) absently, staring up at the coin sized disk of light hanging high in the darkness above him, the fall had been close to a hundred and fifty feet thankfully to water, "oh god i hope this is water" he thought feeling his stomach churn at the thought it might be something else, amidst the sloshing of the "water" Lunatic could hear a high pitched voice echoing down towards him, "uh guys i don't think he made it" squeeked the green kid, "all things considered i think we should probably go down there and check, Raven get Robin to the infermary, the rest of you follow me" that was the borg, a long string of plain wierd guttral words followed by "and then feed them to you!" was likely the orange flying girl that shot the exploady green stuff, the light over head was rather bright green at that point. The current within the maintenance tunnels was dragging him downstream towards the ocean, as the Titans fanned out to search for him splitting up making it easier for him to be found, he continued his drift into a darkened tunnel flanked by concrete ledges, pulling himself out of the murk with a groan, the rapidly dwindling adrenalin mixed with the sudden shock of the bitterly cold water had pulled the fight out of him, sliding back against the tunnel wall he sighed and began unbuckling his breastplate and pulling the whole thing off feeling at his sides to check for broken ribs, finding none he peeled off his shirt wringing out the excess water before pulling it back on and strapping on his breastplate once more, he unlaced his boots long enough to pour out the excess water and tied them up tight to minimize the squelching, as he got to his feet he spied the brightly glowing green light of the orange girl approaching at speed.

Fury born of frustration and worry boiled beneath Starfire's skin barely contained by the knowledge that she would find *him* the one who mocked her in battle who teased her with chase, and who unforgivably caused harm to befall her beloved, if unaware Robin, perhaps she would only break his legs, to keep him from running of course. The light comming from her energized right hand flung back the shadows one hundred feet in all directions, "by the seven hundred free floating eyes of splynn itself i will find you and make you pay" she snarled into the retreating shadows, until luck simply failed her, Lunatic held position amongst the pipes in the cieling smiling down at the red headed girl as she passed beneath, releasing his hold he allowed himself a chortled before levering a hammer blow to the top of her skull that nearly pulled his aching shoulders out of joint, the explosion of pain that collided with the back of her head sent her crashing into the murky water below her and sent an explosion of water upwards soaking Lunatic once more, hands aching he glanced into the roiling water noticing that the murk had taken on a rather unseattling greenish glow and was begining to boil, "ooookay thats my cue to run" he gulped and made a break for it with all haste as the green eyed orange skinned *very* angry alien girl screamed her outrage into the tunnels causing her voice to crash about the city like thunder from below.

Beastboy, hearing Starfire's scream morphed into a bat and started his fluttering near blind flight towards the rather painful echos of her voice closing in rapidly as the constant "peep, peep, peep" of his echo location revealed the tunnel ahead of him, on his last peep the foggy outline of the villian they were chasing was briefly visible, beastboy became a wolf pivotting on his hind quarters and giving chase with a long drawn out howl, letting his friends know where he was, hearing that long drawn out howl echoing up after him Lunatic put in an extra burst of speed his lungs aching, his limbs tired and his body calmly yet insistantly remiding him of his limits, and the fact he had nearly reached them, the stagger in his step was a sure sign that he wouldnt be able to keep this pace much longer without a bit of a breather, so with that he stopped cold whirled on his heel and charged the now startled form of the wolf, lashing out with his trailing leg Lunatic managed to knock the wolf across the tunnel and into the piping of the opposite wall, the result a young green skinned man lay in a heap upon the floor groaning in pain, checking to make sure he hadnt accidently done more harm than intended cost him a few second but aside from a nasty gash on the side of his head and a few broken ribs he seemed fine, searching the green guy's belt finding the circular communicator he fiddlied with it a bit before it keyed on revealing the enraged face of the violet eyed sorceress with the red stone anchored to her forhead, "how did you get Beastboy's communicator, if you've hurt him so help me.." she growled her eyes glowing scarlet and at that moment a peel of thunder boomed ominously overhead "oh thats a bad sign" thought Thomas, "ah thats the thing, I kinda hit him harder than intended and he is unconsious, this thing has a tracking device right?" she stared blankly at him eyes still glowing but managed to nod confusion evident, "ah good" replied Lunatic as he placed the communicator on the ground beside the green teen, and took off at a jog down a side tunnel, trecking through the near darkness until he found a short ladder leading upto a manhole cover, quickly scaling the ladder and listening a moment for traffic and finding none shoved the lid up and to the right before pulling himself out of the tunnels and replacing the lid quietly.

The rain falling upon his exhausted aching form felt like heaven as Lunatic staggered down the vacant sidewalk, it had been a very long time since he felt so tired, he had managed a half hearted jog for a while just enough to get some distance between him and the Titans, "stupid name or not they definatly live up to the titan part" he muttered to himself as a bright red sports car pulled up beside him and Billy's welcome and familiar faces appeared in the window, he took a moment to pull himself together as he popped open the door the strains of a steel guitar wafted from the car, "get in, fella the Titans 'r still lookin fer us, what the heck happened to you anyway?" Billy looked worried as he ever did, "they chased me instead of you guys" grunted Lunatic as he settled into the uncomfortable passenger seat. "And you got away, hot damn boy you got some skills or some crazy luck to pull off something like that yer first time out that calls fer a drink" with that Billy withdrew a bottle of rye from shadows under his seat and tossed it into Lunatic's lap, wasting no time he unscrewed the bottle cap and pulled it to his lips taking long slow swallows of the burning liquid until, much to the agitation of Billy Numerous the bottle ran dry, "aw hey c'mon now what about Billy?" complained his red suited partner in crime, "shouldnt drink and drive" belched Lunatic as he settled into the seat letting his head nod into his chest, "Take me home would ya Bill?" murmured Lunatic as the booze hit his bloodstream and started washing away the aches and warming him up, and sending him into a deep slumber.

For the last three hours Billy and Private Hive, had been cautiously searching for thier wayward dorm mate, checking alleys, barrooms, pawn brokers, A.T.M.s, anywhere a criminal might be found, as it turned out the surest way to find him was to follow the titans, P.H. still nursing a limp and a concussion had relented after an hour and returned to the academy leaving Billy to spread out and continue the search, it was hard and, he had to spread himself thin, but after three hours he was pulling himself back together and heading for home his hard drinking compadre sleeping off a fifth of rye as the red sports coup sped through the city streets headed for home and rest.

It was dark when Lunatic awoke, his body ached all over, which as you can immagin was an unnerving thing to wake up to when your nearly impervious to pain, with a soft groan he managed to sit up revealing that his armor was still snuggly fitted to his damp person, further the suspicious damp spot on his bed where he had been previously reclining was around the same shape as his person, to top it all off he smelt like a jock-strap, so with a full body shudder Thomas shruged out of his armor placing it ungently upon the floor, yanked his bedding off and tossed it in the laundry chute, and grabbed up his towl heading for the bathroom, after a nice long shower he returned dripping to his now foul smelling room intent on cleaning his armor and burning his clothes until he was stopped cold by a familiar voice.

Gizmo sat in his room staring down at the computor moniter, it hadnt taken alot of time or effort to get the security feeds he needed, the sheer number of hidden applications and backdoors in the system were boggling even to his considerable genius, as it stood he wasnt entirely sure that the security staff didnt know he had hacked them, but as they hadnt knocked down his freaking door he wasnt overly worried, certainly not when his revenge was so close, he cast a glance over at the power armor he had just finished, well armor was a sever over simplification, truely it was a manned combat robot, standing over eight feet tall, heavy reinforced pressure treated titanium armor platting that utilized a flexable interlocking mechanism to cushion against heavy impact, a personalized move by wire system that patched directly into his nervousystem for superior movement and reaction in all situations and the most advanced sensor network he had ever created, his magnum opis to be sure, well for the moment, topped off with a pair of self targeting proton cannon turrets mounted to the shoulders made certian he'd keep track of his target regardless of how fast he thought he was, a small almost childish giggle escaped him as he gazed at it longingly, "soon baby real soon we'll paste that snot eating crack sniffer, just have to wait for the right time" he glanced at the secondary measure, his back up, a trio of automated attack drones currently charging in thier housing not as tough or as advanced as his new suit but the three of them had proven effective in the past and linked to his upgraded computor network they should be just enough to tip the scales in his favor, heck after he took out Lunatic he might take a little stroll down to the bay and take care of the Titans, just 'cause, the sensor net peeped alerting him to the fact the crack sniffer in question had just left his room, catching sight of his pale butt and the towl over his shoulder caused a wince of disgust followed by a slow menacing smirk, "Show Time" he cackled leaping from his desk and rushing to his bot.

"Had a nice shower?" cackled the familiar voice of Gizmo, electically distorted by the speakers in Thomas' room, he noticed the eight foot broad bodied robot immediatly, the second thing he noticed was the fact his armor had been kicked into the far corner of the room with the bot between them, the shoulder mounted cannons flanking the bots head had him targeted an experimental shifting of his stance prooved that little theory immediatly, "SUCK PROTONS PIT SNIFFER" snarled the pint sized inventor as his cannons blazed, the quarter heartbeat between that exclimation Lunatic was moving charging head long towards the firing armored suit, fist cocked back he delivering an armor shattering blow to the heavyily armored torso, the impact knocked the bot straight back into the far wall, manic laughter erupted from the speakers "yer gonna have ta do better than that" the right claw of bot lashed out faster than fast, the impact caught Lunatic in the midsection hurling him back across the room, he managed to roll with the blow, even as the tracking photon guns tore up his floor panals, once he struck the wall he managed to gain his feet narrowly evading one of the photon bursts only to dodge into the second, the brilliant blue green energy bolt boiled away flesh like water on a hot stone leaving behind angry red muscle and the slightest teasing peek of bone beyond, "ok this is bad" thought Lunatic as he smirked and readied to throw himself back into the fray.

The shots never let up for a moment forcing Lunatic to duck and weave out of the way, focusing his concentration on defence alone was frustrating to say the least but without his armor he couldnt risk closing in, Gizmo however hadnt let up with the laughter, pacing along the opposite side of his room letting his cannons solwly but surely wear Lunatic out, eventually one of his shots would hit home and to speed up the process Gizmo thumbed the controls to activate his drones.

Private Hive groaned as another crash resounded from the batroom, "damnit Billy keep it down!" another crash followed by the distictive noise of the recently organised toilettries clattering to the floor finally snapped P.H. to full awareness, with a groan and a wince he sat up gathering his shield and pulling on a pair of sweat pants he walked into the bathroom intent on brutalizing the Texan, stepping into the entry hall connecting thier rooms scrubbing his short cropped blonde hair he noticed the manic laughter of Gizmo, his upper classman echoing from Lunatic's room, "HEY! Luney keep it down some of us need more than four hours sleep here!" the crashing continued followed by the unmistakable sound of weapons fire, with a lurching limp, P.H. keyed Lunatics door lock frowning as the override made an odd buzzing crackle, cursing he wrenched the pannel from the wall staring at the mess of wires he began to panic as he realized he had no idea how to override the override, turning on his uninjured heel he hammered on Kyd Wykkyd's door, "WykkYd! i need your help" from the thin air of the shadowed bathroom the cloaked red eyed form materialized, sparing a glance to the noises comming from lunatics room and the sight of the door pannel torn from the wall reaching out he opened his cloak nodding to Private Hive.

Without another word P. through the portal of shadows beneath Kyd's cloak, and for one very unnerving moment he was weightless then abruptly he found himself in the shattered remains of Lunatics room, an unidentified bot was unloading blast after blast from shoulder mounted cannons while three spider like bots the size of dinner plates tried to skewer thier target with brilliant red lasers, thier target obviously Lunatic was a blurr of motion twisting, dodging, rolling and sliding from the blasts, bleeding from multiple hits to his person, "SIR! you have made the singularly worst mistake of your life!" shouted P.H. as he charged in shield first ignoring the screaming of his left leg, comming in low and fast his shield taking the brunt of the impact he managed to knock the bot off its feet and onto the ground, startled by the unexpected attack Gizmo howled in outrage "get offa me you freaking soldier wannabe" as he grabed the shield and hurled P.H. from his person his cannons trying to realign on thier target and unable to cope with the bad angle.

The whole scene was almost painful to view in the oppinion of Kyd Wykkyd, two of his dormmates locked in battle with a large green robot that seemed intent on blasting Lunatic while fiending off the stubborn blows of Private Hive, Kyd vanished into the shadows of his cloak drifing through the passages between shades for a moment he appeared beneath Lunatic dragging him into the shadows and tossing him out into the nearest safe place he could find, returning a moment later to grab the bot and its piolet, dragging the whole thing into the shadows and leaving it beneath the bay bridge across town, returning to the room tired but satisfied, Kyd Wykkyd stared with his calm red eyes at Private Hive as if to say "happy now?" and vanished into the shadows, reappearing once more in his now quiet room where he settled onto his cot with a soft sigh and slept for the first time in a week.


	6. Chapter Six or How to save a life

Raven sighed, it had been a difficult night, oh it had started out normally enough, patrolling with the boys, hunting down muggers and purse snatchers lightening the load of the local police force between struggles with those that the police simply couldnt deal with either due to lack of man power or a lack of unconventional methods. Still it was unlike many of the villians the battled against to be so unwilling to do the Titans harm, she sat quietly in the tower infirmary blankly staring down at the sleeping form of her recently recovered teammate, Beastboy was laying still his ribs taped up, the bandage around his head had been recently changed and the filth of the drainage tunnels washed from his form, a task that cyborg was forced to handle, Robin had left standing orders that she wait until his return before healing the green changling, such efforts always left her drained and near useless to the team espessially when the damage was severe, though Raven thought it an unnessisary precaution, after all Raven had been allowed to heal Robins leg and arm before he left again, perhaps they thought two such healing sessions would deplete her reserves of energy. With a glance at the security camera mounted in the corner, she reached out and brushed her fingers though the thick green hair of her sleeping friend, enjoying the silky feel of it between her fingers, ignoring the roughness of the bandage as her hand traced down to the soft skin of his boyish face, tender feelings seemed to well within her, warm and not unexpected they had been there a while confusing and frustrating at times but steady and constant now, no longer as new and frightening as the first time she had met him, the contact with his skin sent a sympathetic ache into her temple and ribs, with a frustrated growl she gathered her will power and slowly trickled her power into him, seeking out his hurts and soothing them away with the warm breath of her compassion, until the pain had left him entirely, after all Robin need never know that she had mended his injuries before the O.K. was given, a small secret smile graced her usually impassive face as she watched the green boy beside her relax and settle into a deeper sleep, his injuries no longer present to bother him, glancing back at the camera once more she leaned over his bed and placed a small chaste kiss on his smooth brow, before sitting back and awaiting the orders of her fearless leader.

The Rain fell in sheets causing small rivers to cascade into and down the streets making thier way to the ocean, Starfire flew beside Robin as he walked down the deserted streets attempting to track the escaped criminal, "do we have an idea who he is?" asked a bewildered Starfire, the heat of the chase had worn off and she had returned to her usual cheer and with the recovery of her beloved Robin she was feeling quite well with the world, Robin stared up at her through his sopping hair and the pouring rain, I couldnt find anything to identify him at either of the scenes except a few finger prints and Cyborg is running them through the database but i have my doubts that he'll uncover much" the boy wonder sighed his breath steaming in the cold air as he gazed up at the grey sky "lets go home Star", he murmured, Starfire dropped down and scooped Robin up under his arms and took to the skys at speed cutting through the storm clouds like a knife heading for the large "T" that dominated the sky line of the bay.

Gizmo trudged through the city streets people avoided him like a plauge, but didnt raise too great a fuss as he was in no mood to cause trouble, depression hung like a black cloud above his head, failure was a glaring mark against him one Brother Blood wouldnt soon forget, even if it was a failure in one's personal agenda, he sighed shaking his head continueing his long trek home, he made it to one of the hundred secret entrances to the HIVE academy and started his way down the gaurds flanking the massive steel doors stared at him until he produced his ID code, as they opened the doors for him his mood darkened, now that pit sniffer would be onto him wouldnt let his gaurd down again probably make it alot harder to get the drop on him, and knowing Private Hive it would be harder to corner him by himself, his heavy treds stopped infront of his doorwhich he keyed open. Sitting on his bed the object of his ire, alone, armed to the teeth armored and with his rifle resting across his lap, the rifle he had modified, had increased the capacity and improved the efficiency, increased its power, the first inkling of nervousness crept up Gizmo's spine.

"What the heck are you doing in my room pit sniffer" screamed the high pitched voice of Gozmo, the pitch causing the speakers in his armor to crackle, Lunatic drew his revolver quick as thought and emptied it with the roar of a cannon, all six rounds sounding off as a single shot deafeningly loud in the small confines of Gizmo's room all six shots smashed into the helmet of the armored suit harmlessly, failing completely to even damage the sensor net covering the robot, "heh shoulda started with the rifle ya stinking moron, I'm gonna skin you like a potat-oh!" this exclimation was brought on by the fact that Lunatic had his rifle leveled at Gizmo's armor wrapped skull Gizmo keyed the control stud activating the turrets and in the split second they aligned on thier target a sharp *SNAP* *SNAP* louder than the pistol shot preceding it, and a bright blue beam of condensed particles obliterated his shoulder guns as surely as if they were a kids balloons, Lunatic got to his feet slinging his rifle back over his left pauldron and drawing his vibroblade, with a sharp *click* an impercptable hum began to eminate from the blade which seemed to shimer slightly, "I'm going to be very direct with you Gizmo, so i want you to pay attention, this ends right this second, I'm going to walk through that door, I'm going to keep whats *mine* and I am going to return to my room and go to sleep, and that will be the end of it, I won't touch you, you won't touch me, and if you get it into your head to try and ambush me or poison me or plant a bomb on me or anyother idiotic thing that might be going on in that big bald noggin of yours forget it now cause if you screw it up and i get away I'll kill you, no running, no jokes, no threats, do i make myself clear?" From within the heavily armored suit Gizmo swallowed, the calm certianty in Lunatics eyes, the impossibly powerful rifle on his back and that stupid knife of his, in his minds eye Gizmo could see the brutal usage that they had endured in the taller boy's hands, the carbon scoring had told of extensive use, and the wear on the blade had said it had sawed through a great deal and managed to survive to have this evidence witnessed, coupled with the simple familiarity with which Lunatic held the weapons forced Gizmo to nod a bit jerkily "j-just get out of my room butt scratcher, before i get nasty" with that Lunatic smiled cheery as sunshine and almost skipped from the room leaving Gizmo to frown and ponder his next move.

So it was that Lunatic returned to his room and true to his word he shucked his armor stowed his now deactivated blade under his pillow, and began unloading his empty pistol, as the ornate casing landed on his blanket he stared wide eyed, he had just used six of his twelve silver bullets to scare the Gizmo kid, a soft whine escaped Lunatics throat as he loaded the pistol with the much more numerous hollow points, "at least i have my guns back i guess" he said to the empty room still a mess of scorched wood, shattered furnature, and misshapen melted wall pannels, "guess i should see about getting my room fixed up" he sighed to the walls, "in the morning" he yawned at last and settled into bed to while away the next few hours in dreamless slumber.

Brother Blood sat within the dark confines of his office reviewing paper work absently, signing memos and sending out forms, the little things that are simply required to keep the school running, oh most certianly he could have a ream of secretaries and faculty members, doing this for him and doing it just as well, but sometimes a man simply has to do something with his hands while he thinks, and after seeing Lunatics performance against the Teen Titans while simply trying to evade them had piqued his intrest and given him much to think about, if he could give the rather annoyingly effective group so much trouble just trying to flee, unarmed and unprepared, what would he be capable of fully armed and intent on thier destruction, the thought caused a small smile to grace his features, "yes" he purred to himself "there is much to think about, much to do, my little Lunatic I think there are great things in your future" a laugh bubbled its way from his throat that echoed into the empty halls of his school.

Cyborg sat in his room staring down at the series of monitors and sensors running over the blood samples he had collected from the hood of the truck where Beastbiy and the strabge armored kid had been wrestling, most of the blood had been tainted but the police and forensics guys had managed to get him a few distressingly volumous samples, Robin had hoped to identify the guy with this and several finger prints, hair samples, and a few skin samples, but so far the database had come up dry, not all that unusual really most of the people they had to deal with flew under the radar and didnt have extensive warrents or medical histories to be accessed, but the contents of the samples were a bit more distressing, it showed that the kid was human, but that was a far as that went, the sheer amount of neurotransmitters, epinephrine, corticosteroids, and noradrenaline ment the kid should have been having a heart attack not tossing cars and wretling with dinosaurs, it was a worrisome discovery he'd need to take samples directly from the kid to figure out if he was some kind of junkie or if he had some kind of bizzar power that let him handle that kind of stress, but one thing was certian, they needed to find him and stop him before he decided to hurt someone, with a sigh he keyed off his extra system and put away the samples deciding that resting would be best, he wandered over to his bed and locked in for a good nights recharge and a few good dreams.

Another month had passed within the walls of HIVE academy, and Lunatic took full advantage of his outing with Billy and P.H. to further familiarize himself with Jump city, the people, the places, where to find a good book, unfortunatly the work he was used to was simply unavailable to him, it was as if no one had need of a mercinary, he had even tried the local constabulary but they attempted to confiscate his weapons when he explained that he had no I.D. and was currently homeless, and jobless, it was a short sprint to evade them and simple as changing his coat to avoid further trouble from him, of course he had to wear a broad brimmed hat to his his locator studs from view but that didnt bother him much, getting cash was going to be an issue, he didnt have anything to trade and stealing just felt so...wrong, unfortunatly the only jobs available with few questions seemed to be at fast food restraunts and that simply wasnt going to happen, so with a heavy heart Lunatic selected a rooftop overlooking a bank and waited calmly for night fall. It was almost five A.M. when Lunatic spotted the armored car pulling up to the bank four armed gaurds began to file out armed with shotguns and wearing ballistic vests, with a sigh he rolled to his feet and readied himself for his first actual heist, "I can't believe I'm about to do this" he muttered, shortly before the armored car was struck by a brilliant bolt of energy, and a mad cackle echoed up and down the street.

Lurking in the darkness simply wasnt his style, thought Doctor Light as he eyed the armored truck making its way down the road, he glanced down at the system monitor on his right arm smirking as the display illuminated his face, "all systems green its time to enlighten these ignorant peons to the brilliance of Doctor Light, Cackled the mad doc, as he raised his hands above his head charging the proton accelerator, before unleashing a devestating blast into the side of the truck knocking it from its wheels and scattering the gaurds from the rear of the wrecked truck, "weep at your ignorance before the brilliance of Doctor Li-GAH" it was in the midst of this rant that a chunck of brick sailed from the roof of the four story building across the street, smashing into the side of Dr Light's helmet knocking him to the ground.

Lunatic hopped down from the rooftop catching a streetlight mid fall and used it slow his decent as he swung from the creaking metal light source and landed with a crash onto the over turned truck, a heavy piece of masonry still in hand, "Uh i hate to rain on your parade but this is *my* heist, get your own armored car freak!" Dr Light shook his head staring bleerily for a moment at the young man standing on *his* armored car "FOOL!" he cried, "you dare try and dim the brilliance of DOCTOR LIGHT!" with that the good doctor unleashed a blast from both hands at the brick wielding fool on top of the armored car, said figure wasnt there to be shot he had dropped down behind the large overturned vehicle spotting three men still inside banged up and groaning in a heap the engine of the transport was starting to belch black smoke and there was the quiet patter of cracked fuel tanks leaking onto the pavement, Lunatic sighed i am not getting paid enough for the crap he muttered as he nipped around the corner long enough to line up a good throw with his brick, with a grunt he hurled the rectangular projectile at speeds that would leave a professional pitcher jealous, the satisfying *clang* of the brick impacting with the skinny armored chest of that Dr Light fella, with a bit of effort he pulled on the twisted steel of the door the great bulk of the armored land craft groaned and slid a few feet as the doors failed to yeild, "OH GIVE ME A BREAK!" snapped Lunatic as he delivered a kick to the door, little did he know the short slide down the street had kicked up a shower of sparks igniting the fuel with a dull roar, the rapidly spreading flames soon had the whole of the vehicle engulfed in the flames, Dr Light lay on his back gasping for breath the impact of the brick had forced the air from his lungs leaving him reeling and trying desperately not to be violently ill, he heard the horrid shriek of metal on stone followed by the complaints of the ruffian who had struck him, chest aching from the rib that was broken "to turn you back on my brilliance is to invite your doom" wheezed the verbose villian as he raised his right arm and leveled the glowing appendage at the struggling form beside the now flaming transport, with a cackle he unleashed the blast of energy, Lunatic who had been concentrating on the transport and its occupants only had enough time to turn and think "ah fuck" as he was blown off his feet, his armor absorbing most of the damage from the blast as the collision knocked him into the banks loading bay crumpling the door and setting off the alarm therein.

Doctor Light cursed rather colorfully as he limped into the alley making his way to the beat up hatch back that would serve his escape, "next time I'll finish you, allowing you to be burnt to nothing in the luminecent glory of my inventions" cackled Dr Light as he turned the key and gunned the engine the headlights revealed the dark shape of the sorceress raven and the glowing eyes of the green beast beside her, the beast's maw opened wide revealing rows of sharp ivory fangs as its massive fist came down on the hood of his S.U.V. shattering the headlights and plunging the alley once more into darkness, "Good boy" giggled the sorceress from within the deeper darkness of her cloak her slim fingers caressing the thick mane as Dr Light screamed in horror.

From the darkness of the banks loading bay Lunatic cursed rather colorfully as he untagled himself from the twisted remains of the door, it was distressingly slick, and the tangy scent of his own blood was heavy in his nostrils, "memo to self pay attention to your surroundings one hundred lines, when I get back to the HIVE" he groaned, and stood memory smashing back into his skull even as the scent of smoke reached his nostrils past all else, "shit shit shit" he hissed as he leapt from the loading bay running hell mell towards the truck drawing his vibroblade mid step, the coughing from inside barely audible over the roar of the flames, which now wreathed the entirty of the armored transport, whirling the blade point down he hammered the vibrating knife into the twisted metal door, flames licking his flesh and leaving scorched flesh behind as the blade slice neatly into it just far enough to pierce the armor with a smile he drew the knife sharply to the right jerking it three feet and forcing it down a further three feet as the sonic generator sparked and went silent, jerking his hands back he swore at the faulty weapon tossing it over his shoulder he hauled back and delivered a brutal hammer blow to the center of the door forcing the newly cut door partially into the smokey compartment, now able to curl his hands around the searing metal of the door he braced his foot against the metal forcing the reinforced metal to groan in protest as it slowly gave way and bent slowly outwards, "son of a bitch" gasped Lunatic as he ducked inside flames already curling within the compartment setting alight his would be prize, "you boys are damned lucky I'm a goodly sort" gripping the back of the first mans vest he bodily hurled him from the truck followed by his other two buddies, staggering free of the wreckage, he couldnt help but chuckle staggering over to the gaurds he settled them on the steps of the bank, they were already looking better with the fresh air filling thier lungs instead of smoke, Lunatic settled onto the steps slapping out his burning pant leg absently.

From the shadows of the alleyway Raven extended a thought to the armored car sheathing it in black energy snuffing the flames in a heartbeat, as Beastboy hunkered down beside her no longer sheathed in the skin of an animal watching as the armored boy sat the last of the gaurds on the steps of the bank, sitting down on the steps beside them and patting out his smoldering pant leg, "he's hurt" murmured Beastboy softly to the sorceress at his side, Raven simply nodded, watching as the armored boy lent back on the steps and groaned, seeming to fall asleep as the sirens echoed from further within the city, "he's not moving Rae" murmured the green changling as he rolled into the form of a wolf and loped over to the armored boy's fallen knife collecting it in his jaws he crept slowly over to the replete forms upon the stairs dropping the blade at his feet and sitting on his haunches before him watching, calmly Raven stepped up beside him reaching down to lightly toy with one of his ears causing the great green wolf to pant happily thumping his tail on the pavement, "Excuse me?" Raven murmured eyeing the recumbrant kid with the silver studs in his head, the burns on his arms had started steaming, the flesh slowly knitting, the burns slowly fading from his hands until the skin was smooth, scarred but whole.

The healing trance hadnt taken as long as anticipated, soon the unbearable itching gave way to the sounds of sirens and the panting of a large dog, Lunatic cracked his eyes open and beheld the purple cloaked sorceress and the large wolfe sitting at her feet, lightning fast he snatched up the blade at his feet and flipped up and back to the top of the steps "okay you two nice and easy, I'm armed this time and i really don't want to hurt you guys" Raven looked thuroughly unimpressed, the wolf however became a green kid with a head full of messy...green hair, and a single sharp fang peeking out from his lower lip, "easy there fella, we're not here for trouble we just caught sight of an old friend and thought we'd say hi" at this the green kid grinned hopefully, as the sorceress sighed "we were after Dr Light, you just sort of showed up, and to sum up the explinations, yes we saw everything" her monotone was starting to rattle around in his head, Raven frowned he was resisting her attempts to feel him out empathically a somewhat strange reaction, most people couldn't detect her presence in thier minds, "soooo what do we call you? I'm Beastboy and she's Rae..uh Raven" Beastboy corrected himself on the last bit somewhat hastily due to the icy glare of his companion, Lunatic sort of lost his thunder at this point relaxing his battle ready posture as the cops showed up to the scene, stowing his knife as he strolled down the steps, "so you two know a place where i could get a cup of coffee?"


	7. Chapter Seven or Coffee with Titans

It was an awkward scene at Delores' Diner, the late night customers were usually a bit off but most of the time they were not super heroes, and most of the time they didn't wear combat armor and haul around weird high tech energy rifles, the presence of two of the Teen Titans was comforting to the aged waitress named Mavis, she sighed and straightened her apron, gathering her tray and smiling at William the fry cook, he returned her smile with a crooked grin of his own mopping his sweating bald pate with a nearby handkerchief as Mavis gathered her tray laden with a trio of coffee mugs steaming and black, a short walk later brought her to the table where the three teenage heroes sat and awkwardly stared at one another, "here ya go kids, we just brewed her up fresh" with that Mavis placed the mugs in front of them "ya'll gonna order some eats or should i let you enjoy yer joe?"

Lunatic smiled at the grey haired waitress nodding politely as he brought the black mana to his lips and took a short slup of the bitter brew, sighing "oh I needed that!" another few moments of awkward silence followed as everyone took the time to enjoy those first few wonderful sips of brew, finally Beastboy placed his mug on the table top and looked Lunatic square in the eyes "alright dude so whats the deal are you a hero or a criminal?" he exclaimed sounding annoyed, Raven stared at the side of her green teammates head "way to be blunt" she droned, "what my...hasty friend here meant to say is why did you cause that rampage the first time we met? and why did you save the guards in the armored car this time?" She continued to glare at her embarrassed green friend, who had the good grace to blush. "Uh Admittedly I didn't know they were gonna do that, I know I was taking villainy 101 but I sort of thought it was, well I didn't really think they were serious, some of the classes were neat, oh man the combat classes were fun!" Lunatic laughed in fond memory.

Beastboy blinked stared in gaping awe for a few moments before yelping "THERES A VILLAIN SCHOOL!" Raven and everyone in the immediate area wince at the volume and pitch, Raven closed her eyes before sheathing B.B.'s whole head in dark energy, letting him scream and rant himself hoarse while leaving the rest of the diner in peace, "thank you" gasped Lunatic "getting blown up hurt less than that!", Raven sighed "he means well but sometimes the blood rushes to his head" Beastboy seemed to catch on that no one was listening and prodded Raven's side so that she could see the pointed glare he was leveling at her, with a sigh she let the bubble burst leaving the the green teen fuming at the goth, she seemed to forget herself for a moment and favored him with a small smile obviously amused by his childish pouting, this caused the ire to fade from the green teen's face, the whole scene had Lunatic feeling uncomfortable, sort of like he was intruding on a private moment so he contented himself with sipping his coffee waiting for the two of them to stop being shy at each other.

Soon Mavis returned to take their orders and after asking for a salad a club house sandwich and more coffee the trio continued their discussion. "so... what were you doing outside the bank?" asked Beastboy around a mouthful of salad, causing Raven to start as though she hadn't thought of that, "Beastboy raises a valid point, for a change" she cast a sidelong glance at him as she threw that little barb, Lunatic blushed rather hoping they wouldn't ask that, "uh I was kind of planning to swipe a bag of cash to tide me over y'know while they weren't looking, and then that Dr Light fella kinda threw a wrench into that little plan and here we are incidentally, uh can you guys spot me for the meal I don't feel like doing dishes tonight" The two heroes gave Lunatic an incredulous stare "your just out and out admitting to planning a robbery?" gaped Beastboy incredulously "and whats the difference between robbing a bank and running out on the check anyway" at this exclamation Mavis leveled a baleful glare at the green teen, Raven drew a couple bills from within her cloak and handed them to Mavis who looked abashed but took the cash none the less, with the formalities out of the way Raven returned her piercing gaze to the armored boy across from her and Beastboy, awaiting an explanation. Lunatic sighed long sufferingly and scrubbed his fingers through his hair before settling into ranting mode "I don't believe in stealing from small businesses because the owners even the well to do ones worked long and hard to get what they've got and for the most part squeak by on what they earn, meanwhile larger businesses such as banks and the like tend to be backed by both rich and or corrupt investors who could stand to lose a bit of cash besides the banks have that cash insured so its not like they are really losing anything anyway" after that mouthful of dialog Lunatic inhaled and sighed bringing his mug to his lips and taking a drink of his cooling coffee.

Raven and Beastboy shared a glance and returned their collective gaze to the armored boy across from them "so what do you plan to do now?" asked Raven calmly finishing her coffee and placing the cup in front of her, Beastboy subtly tensed at this, the soft creak of vinyl not lost on Lunatic as he relaxed further into the booth "I guess i start looking for work I don't exactly want to be a thief, even if I'd be really good at it" he chuckled "its just that there doesn't seem to be much need for mercenaries in this city and I know so very little about this world, so like mine but so unlike it as well...kinda frustrating really" Beastboy sat patiently through this monolog, a feat worth of song in his opinion before he piped in "ever think of trying your hand at the other end of the super ladder? y'know try being a hero" Lunatic arched a brow and replied "isn't the super hero thing kind of um anti-profit?" Raven frowned ever so slightly at the sentiment before replying "we are given a stipend from an anonymous benefactor to live on we don't make a profit from doing our job" Lunatic leveled a baleful stare at the goth "well not all of us have mysterious benefactors, some of us kind of have nothing to our name but the skills we possess and some impressive firepower and frankly my skill set is meant for more ...combative projects" he sighed and massaged his forehead, "and i did not trade up my sanity to become a superhuman so i could flip burgers at super speeds" Beastboy giggled at the strange mental image of a man in combat armor flipping burgers with an apron and a hair net, "oh dude you should work in a burger shack it'd be so funny" he continued to laugh at the thought.

Raven let her green friend continue his one man laugh riot turning to look back at the armored man she frowned "your basically looking for the day to day amenities to keep on living, that seems reasonable", Beastboy scratched his head confused "so why don't you join the Titans?" Raven stared at B.B. incredulously as Lunatic's mouth slowly worked trying form words that would be somewhat appropriate the rather ridiculous exclamation, finally after a moment Lunatic sighed "you do remember three months back when i knocked you into the wall left you all busted up in the tunnels?" Beastboy shrugged "yeah but you turned on my locator made sure the others knew i was hurt no harm no foul I'd have done worse in your position heh."

Raven rubbed the bridge of her nose twixt thumb and forefinger before leveling a stare at her green friend "Beastboy just because he has a decent streak, doesn't mean he has the drive to promote justice" Beastboy sighed and leveled a pointed stare at the hoodded sorceress "if we don't help him now whose to say someone doesn't decide to offer him enough cash to ignore that decent streak for a while it only takes one step down the slippery slope of evil for some one to ..uh fall" finished the green teen a bit awkwardly, Raven looked a bit taken aback "that was almost a good point" turning to look at Lunatic piercingly taking in his unruly mop of brown hair with the occasional peek of silver in the midst of the mess, the drawn face with its irritating half smirk, the rather plain features neither handsome nor ugly, if it were not for his performance not half an hour ago, and of course the outlandish weapons and armor he could pass as a very fit teenager.

After her prolonged inspection which caused a jealous glower to grace Beastboy's visage and an embarrassed heating of Lunatic's, she nodded and pulled her communicator from her belt, "Raven calling Robin" she droned, "Robin here" was the prompt reply "you remember the kid in the weird armor who gave us the slip about three months back, the one Star was ranting about for three days" "Did you spot him! We can be there in two minutes!" Raven smirked almost unperceptively "actually were at the thirty second street diner having coffee" the silence that followed and the blank look on the masked boys face forced a cackle from Lunatic followed by a chortle from Beastboy, as the boys had their giggle fit Raven continued "He said he is looking for a way to make ends meet and Beastboy and I watched him take on Dr Light and rescue a few security guards from a burning truck, he admitted to having intentions to rob the armored car but was side tracked when Dr Light attacked the vehicle, the security footage will show his actions rather better than i can describe them, the long of the short of it is he wants to join the Titans" The Boy wonder mulled this over for a moment before sighing "alright if he agrees to turn himself over to us I'll think about giving him a shot be he is put in a cell while i think it over" with that Robin signed off.

Raven closed the communicator and placed it back in her belt, casting her gaze on the armored boy Beastboy had stopped laughing as had Lunatic, "I guess i should surrender my weapons and put on some hand cuffs right?" he reached for his knife placing it on the table and handed his rifle over to the sorceress with a grin, Beastboy took the rifle and the knife examining them both excitedly "duuuude is this some kind of super quantum disintegrator ray that can like atomize a city block with a single blast and render it lifeless to any and all who would enter it?" his eyes shone as he clutched the heavy rifle in both hands peering down the sights making odd little ray gun sounds as he aimed down the isle causing customers and staff to scatter with yelps and shrieks of terror, Lunatic snatched the rifle from the green teens hands thumbing the safety on and powering down the weapon, "uh how bout you carry this" he handed the heavy rifle off to the darkly clad sorceress, who took the weapon in both hands and with a murmur sent it through a dark portal into parts beyond, the knife she simply placed on her belt "I'll be getting those back right?" Lunatic asked nervously, Raven favored him with a neutral gaze before replying "if Robin doesn't decide your a hopeless criminal then yeah i don't see why not" Lunatic exhaled his relief before frowning "so how do we get to your base do we call a cab or something?" Raven's response was to smirk and chant while Beastboy turned into a dark green raven and fluttered onto her shoulder, then everything went dark.


	8. Chapter eight or To be or not to be?

It was cold and dark, the sort of soul crushing black that madmen write about in their own blood on the walls of their dark little cells, places where only delusions are their constant companions, for some this sort of mind numbing terror is overwhelming, to Raven it was as familiar as her own hand or arm, to Beastboy this was the darkness within the soul of his dearest friend, to Lunatic it was a hand full of heart beats of mind twisting horror that reminded him of the first time he met a dragon and stared into those inhuman unfathomable golden eyes and his reaction was much the same now as it was then, he screamed himself hoarse within those few moments, and then it was all over and he was hurdling towards the ground, instinct and ungodly reflexes allowed him to turn his shoulder into the fall, rolling to his feet and staggering two jerky steps towards a well lit living room where he lost hold of the tasty sandwich he had just recently consumed.

Raven watched as their would be teammate lost his lunch all over their couch, Beastboy stared in shock from her shoulder, she could feel nausea filling his tiny body but admirably he resisted, pride keeping his natural reaction in check, as the other's in the living room winced and cried out in disgust, all save Starfire who loosed a cry of outrage and flew at the violently ill form of Lunatic, her bone shattering blow flung the retching teen across the room and through the big screen T.V. that dominated the wall across from the couch, the explosion of glass and the sharp crackle of shorting electronics mixed with the squawk of Beastboy and the pained wail of Cyborg. "Oh its on now orange girl" growled Lunatic from the shattered remains of the television, as a second explosion of plastic and glass showered the living room in more debris and, like a cannon shot, Lunatic tackled the green eyed alien girl out of the air, covered in cuts and burns his hair smoldering and howling a battle cry as his fist collided with the side of the Tamaranian's skull sending the pair of the to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs Starfire screaming her fury and annoyance in her own tongue as she tried to crush the armored figure grappling her, finally the other Titans stepped in separating the battling pair, Starfire resting in the arms of Robin and a fuming Lunatic held in the steely embrace of Cyborg.

"Not exactly the best introduction" mused Lunatic unarmed and unarmored wearing a charcoal grey jogging suit having freshly showered and enjoyed a short healing trance to patch himself up he examined the walls and floor of his little cell ,small best described it twelve paces in each direction a single rather comfortable cot, no blankets, no spare clothes, no games, no books, nothing to pass the time, he sighed and flopped down on the bunk staring up at the ceiling with a dejected frown.

Robin and the other Titans sat calmly in the briefing room, the silence was deafening, Cyborg cast his glance about the room taking in Starfire as she fumed literally burning the table with her gaze smoke curling towards the ceiling, Raven sat stoic and impassive, beside her Beastboy fidgeted nervously his unease with the tension in the room plain for all to see, Robin sat beside Starfire leaning slightly away from the fuming alien girl, Victor sighed "sooooo what are we going to do with the kid? I mean aside from the property damage thing and evading arrest he hasn't actually done anything wrong, no criminal record, heck no record of any kind, not to sound harsh the kids nobody" Starfire's fists hammered the table with shattering force rocking the entirety of it "We should incarcerate the florbag nah grub immediately he is unstable and a coward he will be a detriment to our.. us! I have seen his like before they are unstable and violent he will betray us!" Robin winced as Star's rant ended and the tall alien girl hovered in the air fists encased in brilliant emerald energy panting with barely restrained fury.

"Whoa is he like part of some super secret intergalactic invasion plan to take over the universe and fill it full of people with silver disks on their head that control their every action?" Beastboy gushed, Starfire's fury did not abate she did however become quiet as she murmured "I do not wish to talk about it" Robin sighed unhappily at this drumming his fingers on the table top a moment before casting a slightly nervous gaze at the quietly brooding alien "Star aside from the man in our holding cell your the only one who really knows anything about this, isn't there something you can share?" Starfire scrubbed her eyes and sighed softly "the metal plates in his head mark the location of the magnets within his brain, these magnets stimulate portions of the brain into hyperactivity producing several chemicals in the brain and body in quantities that the body is not normally supposed to possess this grants increased strength, speed, and endurance but at a reduced life expectancy, eventually, between the chemical imbalance, and the effects of the magnets within the brain, it invariably drives the warrior mad" Starfire exhaled gustily after the rather lengthy explanation, the rest of the titans stared at her for a moment before robin piped up "that was remarkably specific Star how did you come by this particular bit of information?" the other waited with rapt curiosity as Starfire seemed to grow more and more uncomfortable finally with her head bowed she muttered "I cannot speak of it, it is the business of Tamaran and I am sworn to secrecy, I am sorry friends".

The frustration and disappointment that clouded the room tasted of sour milk and vaguely like cinnamon, she frowned slightly at that shaking her head slowly as to ward off the cloying feel of it, she could feel Beastboy's hardening resolve as he made ready to blurt out his opinion, her hand slid over to his under the table interlacing their fingers a moment before squeezing gently in encouragement as he cleared his throat, "not to put a kink in Star's uh detailed explanation but doesn't that mean he might not be crazy yet lets get a head shrinker in here and find out, we might be able to you know save him from... y'know himself" That gave the group further pause until Starfire murmured almost sadly "I have been told the process is irreversible, once the magnets are in place removing them is too risky to the subject in question, even so the damage is already done". "Either way" sighed Robin "the only thing we have on him is evading arrest and some property damage issues the longest we can detain him is six months and who knows what might happen in that time if we choose to keep him contained" Beastboy and Raven both stood up at that "duuude six months in prison! the punishment soo does not fit the crime" Raven Continued in Beastboy's stead "from his point of view what would you do if you and your idiot friends were attacked in the middle of a parking lot? He's obviously not from this world if what Star says is accurate, are we going to arrest and incarcerate him because he was unaware of the rules?" Cyborg watched his fellow titans argue back and forth for a few moments as their leader attempted to regain order finally he got to his feet and made for the door, "Uh Cy what are you doing?" Cyborg spared the group a glance before shrugging "I'm gonna go talk to him if he wants to be a titan i say we give him a chance, if not we lock him up for six months seems simple to me"

Within his cell Thomas (Lunatic) had started doing push ups, figuring the physical strain would help occupy his time, now a normal man might prop his feet up on the bunk to challenge himself with the sharper angle adding greater strain with each push, a particularly strong man might brave this exercise using one arm at a time switching between them with each upward thrust, for Thomas this was deemed beneath his ability, so it was that the Titans found him balanced with his bare feet in the air lifting himself with one hand, "Neat" said Beastboy watching the spectacle with interest as Lunatic strained for a moment sweat dripping to the floor as his nose just brushed the plate metal under his right hand, "I've seen my boy Robin do the same thing seems the guy got gypped if all he wanted to be was marine tough" sighed Cyborg sadly "he coulda spent a year working out or something why shorten his life span and go craz..." it was at this point that Lunatic sprang under the power of his right arm upwards until his feet slammed into the ceiling eight feet above him, immediately he switched arms and caught himself with his left hand groaning for a moment as he struggled to balance his entire body on the single appendage, soon he was level lowering himself once again readying to spring upwards, "guess he has a bit of an edge on ya Robby boy" giggled Beastboy earning a nudge from Raven who hid a smile, Lunatic Rolled to his feet and marched over to the glass separating him from the Titans "I can hear you guys in there" he sing songed cupping his hands around his face and pressing against the mirrored surface to try and get a better look at his wardens.

Startled at his sudden declaration for but a moment Robin keyed up the intercom "Lunatic, was it? My name is Robin leader of the Teen Titans we have decided to give you a shot if your interested, its on a trial basis unfortunately and if it doesn't work out you'll have to serve out your sentence for the property damage and evading the authorities, do you agree with this offer?" Lunatic sagged at the "serve out your sentence" bit but nodded reluctantly "I'm not much cut out for the villain thing figured I'd try the hero thing, dad always said i had an honest streak, so you guys gonna put a tracking collar on me that'll blow my head off if i get out of hand?" Robin arched a brow and keyed the comm again "uh well no we kinda thought we'd show you to your temporary quarters and maybe go for pizza" Lunatic cheered cart wheeling about his cell excitedly all but bouncing off the walls as Cyborg chuckling opened the cell door, offering Lunatic his gear back, which Luney eagerly accepted, leaping out of the itchy jogging suit right there and starting to pull on his fatigues happily humming amidst the cries of startled embarrassment, Raven's eyes shot to the floor as Starfire clapped her hands over her eyes, Robin looked unimpressed but remained silent, Beatboy cackled at the girls reaction, Cyborg sighed "ya coulda waited until you got to your room man" Lunatic wriggling into his shirt shrugged "puh-leez nothing you haven't seen before I'm sure".

In short order Lunatic had laced up his boots and buckled on every scrap of armor with a happy sigh, with the reassuring weight held close to his body once more he felt a world better "pizza!, pizza!, pizza!" he sang as he charged into the common room with Cyborg trailing after him, "about your weapons.." began Robin with a slight frown "we don't much care for guns here were in the business of saving lives even the lives of villains, shooting people is NOT an acceptable measure for apprehending them" Lunatic arched a brow as he snatched his rifle from the masked teen, before him "This is a Northern Gunn Brand particle beam rifle, where I'm from you use these things to take out tanks and power armor I'm not going to start shooting every idiot I come across, sides my gun only holds ten shots now and takes forever to recharge, I'm only going to use this thing in an emergency, prefer my fists anyway, well and my knife...which is busted again" Lunatic sighed unhappily at this. "Want me to take a look at it for ya" offered Cyborg helpfully holding out his broad metallic hand "would you? thanks!" said an almost pathetically grateful Lunatic, as Cyborg took the knife from the shorter boy and wandering off to his room called back "I'll meet you guys at the pizza parlor, go on ahead I wanna take a look at this thing" with that Robin grinned "alright gang lets move out.

Having to ride behind the masked teen proved to be uncomfortable for both parties, and it was a welcome relief when Lunatic leapt off and started running along side, "so how fast can you run?" shouted Robin over the whine of his R-cycle" Luney replied in kind "I can keep a steady forty miles an hour for about half an hour, I can double that in a pinch but not for very long" as they neared the pizza parlor, Lunatic vaulted onto the balcony nearly overturning a table as he landed causing the patrons to shout startled protests at his flashy entrance "eheheh sorry folks I've got a real urge for pizza and it cannot be denied!" bogarding the largest table by plopping himself into a seat to await his new teammates, he didn't have long to wait as Starfire was first to arrive, trying to put forth an effort to be friendly she smiled tentatively at him her nervousness apparent even to the fidgeting armored boy in front of her, Lunatic smiled back equally as nervous, "man this is awkward" he chuckled to his table/team mate, she hummed her agreement as Beastboy and Raven arrived, Robin was last bringing the waiter in tow, settling into his seat beside Starfire, "so what'll it be?" asked the waiter as her pulled out his note pad and awaited the order of the city's protectors.


	9. Chapter Nine or Settling In

It was an awkward beginning for Thomas, trying his hand at the heroic thing proved to be difficult, first off the battery of tests that his eldest teammate insisted on where often embarrassing at times, everything from the basic check up (turn your head and cough!) to some very strange devices that required him to be electrocuted at varying voltages to see the effect it had on his blood chemistry and the magnets in his head, when it was proven that nothing short of a lethal shock would effect the magnets, at which point, muscle spasms and an altered heart rate would be the least of his concerns, though Cyborg was not satisfied until he had a sample of every body fluid and tissue on or in Thomas' body.

It was a solid week before the embarrassing tests where done, afterward he spent a great deal of time with Robin who wanted to know everything that Lunatic could tell him about his augmentations and the instability that came with them, the whole affair was almost as awkward as Cyborg's tests, and the skeptical stare of his would-be leader as he explained that he was actually twenty five years old, not his current fourteen, and that he used to be from a world similar but different to the one he currently found himself in the knowledge that he would eventually go completely mad didn't thrill the masked Boy Wonder, even the assurances that he could only really remember an intense fear of the dark and periodic memory loss as well as head aches whenever a magic user did their thing.

Starfire was distant and quiet around him and he found himself becoming subdued in her presence, they rarely ever got within six feet of one another except during their infrequent meals in the common room, he got along best with Cyborg and Beastboy who introduced him to the wondrous world of video games, he spent most of his spare time competing against the green teen and the tin man hooting and hollering insults and declarations of vengeance as he proved that superior reflexes and heightened senses didn't do squat in the world of video games, B.B. was thrilled that he had someone he could regularly trounce in the virtual world.

Raven he never really spoke to very often she was distant and quiet, giving off on air of "bother me and die" he typically kept clear of her polite bust distant, being raised in the coalition states gave him a bit of a distrust for out right magic.

His favorite time by far was training, the titan's facilities were top notch, a light practice work out room outfitted with all the latest in athletic enhancement devices, and many of the classics, tread mills, barbells, punching bags, speed bags, the works, it was tragic however that he couldn't work in the air conditioned space that Robin, Beast Boy, and even Starfire were allowed to occupy, the heaviest barbell they had on hand was a staggering four hundred pound, not nearly heavy enough to challenge him, the tread mills couldn't handle any speed above twenty five miles per hour without burning out, and after destroying the third punching bag he was summarily booted from the room and its lovely air conditioning, Cyborg, stand up guy that he was took pity on his somewhat manic compadre and offered to design a personal set up for him, though he cheerily told Loony that he had to run laps he wasn't replacing two hundred bearings just cause Loony was feeling a bit restless, so it was that he got his own little area to work out in one of the larger hangers within Titan Tower, along side an intimidating contraption that Cyborg used for his work outs, though the idea of a Cyborg "working out" seemed a bit bizarre to Lunatic, he chose not to mention his observations, he instead contented himself to a strict training regiment involving benching a one tone slab of steel and concrete, running endless laps around the island that housed his new home.

Combat practice was something he could share with his teammates and did so eagerly, the exercise was distressingly well controlled using pacification drones that hurt when they shot you and hit you with just enough force to bruise, and frankly feeling pain was kind of hard for him the only time he really felt anything resembling pain was the few times he had been shot and bone broke, that sort of nerve shattering pain kinda got past the iron walls of endorphins and the weird techno magic that the magnets produced, even then that was simply a dull ache that let him know he shouldn't stand on that limb, so the idea of being shot by a "pain gun" didn't exactly wow him, and bruising blows barely registered, still he smiled gamely and danced about the clumsy swings and the beams of the "pain guns" not entirely sure if he was supposed to break the bots or not, eventually Beast Boy piped up "DUUDE! you have to hit them sometime! some of us want to do something today besides watch you hop around" with a sigh Lunatic lashed out with his right hand, sheering a robot in half as he unleashed a flurry of blows leaving piles of smoldering robotics, two of his teammates cheering, he grinned at them and wandered back to the line of titans still awaiting their turns in the "ring" Starfire was next bobbing about two feet in the air her hands glowing a toxic green as she drifted into the staging area six more drones descended from the ceiling their odd triangular bodies gleaming new and eager to be tested, Starfire seemed much more at ease in this scenario as she unleashed bolt after bolt from her hands devastating the drones in short order, yet more drones descended from the ceiling flying in formation about the ceiling as Starfire took flight a low "boom!" followed her sudden acceleration as the drones gave chase firing their stunners at the graceful alien girl who easily evaded the somewhat predictable attacks, she twisted about mid air flinging explosive green energy bolts back at her pursuers destroying four of the six drones before she collided embarrassingly with the far wall of the exercise room, smashing clean through the concrete and steel reinforced wall.

Robin sighed rubbing his temples as he reached out to the panel at his side striking the exercise kill switch causing the remaining drones to stop their attack and return to their housings as Starfire peeked her head through the ragged hole in the wall, "I am sorry friend Robin, I had forgotten the nature of the exercise was fighting in enclosed spaces" her embarrassed giggle caused beast boy to titter humorously which prompted a booming chortle from Cyborg, Raven shook her head slightly,her sentiments a mystery to the others.

And those where his beginning days with the titans, the exercises varied somewhat but always felt so safe, so controlled they lacked the risk of real honest to goodness life or death battle. Patrols were definitely where he got most of his entertainment,usually they involved him jogging down the road at a comfortable thirty miles an hour keeping his sharp ears open for the sounds of ne'er do wells giving the gift of grief to the more law abiding populace within Jump city, the sounds of a struggle and sharply barked commands and the sounds of someone pleading usually meant a mugging or an assault, typically he would charge in give a second or two so that he didn't mistake a simple argument for a more serious serious form of disagreement, then he would stroll up to the pair or,trio, or sometimes even more, pluck up the apparent victim and leap away from their attackers and then with a quirk of a grin charge back into the midst of the group tossing them around like rag dolls for a bit just for kicks, before cuffing them to street lights or parking meters or whatever was handy and continuing on his merry trek.

Every now and again Lunatic would wader back to the H.I.V.E. academy to share a class or two with Billy and P.H. the two boys were always happy to see him, and when they asked he was happy to tell them he had joined up with the Titans, it would have gone over fairly well if he had made the declaration in private, say at a restaurant, or maybe in one of Billy's cars on the way to a bar, Loony however chose to tell them in the middle of the cafeteria during lunch at a crowded table(well crowded with Billy's), P.H. stared slack jawed at his absentee classmate/roommate/friend, "you have got to be kidding me" he finally muttered resting his head in his hands, Billy seemed to think it was a joke and the whole gang of him cackled at the idea of his crazy buddy shaking down muggers and hob-nobbing with the police, "Hoo boy you had me going right Billy?" snorted the Billy across from Lunatic, nudging his Doppelganger to the right of him who was likewise lost in his own snorting chuckles, Lunatic shrugged, "they actually get paid for the crap they put up with can't say I don't enjoy the bullying of the odd mugger, though they're training routines are weak sauce".

And so his life moved on, Billy and P.H. where his weekend buddies, they had an agreement not to talk about "work" no crime stopping for Loony when they boys were out, no larceny for Billy and P.H., and all told it worked out, oh the odd bar brawl, or street fight broke out as was to be expected between the three hot tempered super-humans, but by and by they got along famously, having a purpose, friends, and a bit of spending money to pad his wallet, that was all that it took to make him happy.

Unfortunately Cyborg had been unable to repair his knife, he simply didn't posses the necessary tools for the fine work needed to repair the vibration generator, but he managed to get the annoying looseness in the blade so it didn't shift when he swung or stabbed with it, it wasn't much but it was something, he replaced some of the spent rounds for his revolver and kept it with him at all times, it was comforting to be armed even in this relatively peaceful world.

And so life was.


	10. Chapter ten or Let it burn

"Red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red!, red!, red!, RED!, RED!" screamed the voices hammering around in the utter darkness of her thoughts, her eyes blood shot, hidden behind the comforting mask that was supposed to keep the voices at bay, slid open, like sandpaper rasping against concrete as she gazed about, the dirty alley lay much as it had before, the garbage bags she had collapsed in shielded her from prying eyes and the bitter cold of the evening air, her bare feet felt nibbled upon likely from the rats of the alley, her clothing, the uniform of one of the orderlies from Jump City Psyche ward, the once blue pants tied tightly around her skinny waist hung dangerously low, the broken shackles attached to her grubby ankles clinked as she shifted her bare feet, the loose shirt was almost two sizes too large, the sleeves had not survived her flight from that horrid place.

Clarissa, her sharp little sister sat by her side connected by the short length of chain, the handcuffs that had belonged to the orderly who tried to keep them separated, she had found it necessary to use her bare hands to silence his protests, she shook off the the ephemrical wisps of this memory as she felt herself dragged to her feet, the movement was wholly unnatural as though some unseen puppet master tugged her from the pile of bags, her feet touched back onto the ground as the gentle tinkle of the chain swaying between her and Clarissa, her right hand reached down and gripped the handle of the heavy chainsaw, she pulled the red flecked weapon from beneath the pile of garbage backs, bringing the blade up to the scuffed oval mask, the utter black pits of her eyes peered out from the oval mask, "oooone...twoooo...threeeeee...fooooouuuuuur...fiiiiiiiive...siiiiiiiiix" she whispered as her scared fingers carefully pulled the chain along the track counting each razor sharp tooth with a quiet determination, she had to make sure her little sister hadn't chipped a tooth after she had fallen asleep, it happened every now and again sometimes Clarissa would get really REALLY thirsty and she'd have to feed her dozens and dozens of screaming people, eventually she had been stopped, the Dark Man! she barred sharpened teeth behind the thick ceramic mask as a long hiss escaped.

A startled gasp shook her, she wished she could remember her name, Clarissa shook in her hands, suddenly and violently thirsty, the masked girl smiled lovingly down at her sharp little sister curling her scarred grey fingers around the stubby wooden handle that connected her fingers to Clarissa's "wake-up" line, giving it one sharp jerk forcing a sudden cough and a low predatory rumble deep within the body of her sharp sister, a belch of acrid black smoke erupted from the engine as the two hundred and twenty one teeth raced around their track a roar flooded the alleyway drowning out the hysterical scream of the three teenage boys who had just left the local pizza parlor after a filling dinner. Unseen the masked girl smiled widely behind her mask as Clarissa had a nice long drink after a good nights sleep.

Billy, Private Hive, and Lunatic sat around the triangular table of the "Slice of Life" pizza parlor when the roar of the chainsaw and the hysterical screams caused Lunatic jerked to his feet, a crowd of hysterical people stormed passed the window screaming in horror at something pursuing them, soon the crowed cleared and Lunatic was treated to the view of the grey skinned half starved woman strolling down the street menacing the retreating crowed with a blood covered chainsaw, her dirty blue orderly's scrubs where spattered with fresh splashes of red and black, Billy and P.H. both watched the masked girl march past the large pane glass window before returning to their pizza, Lunatic stared at the two of them, "that didn't bother either of you in the slightest, did it?" he droned, drawing his pistol and checking the cylinder, then clicking back it back into place when he confirmed that the weapon was loaded. Billy and P.H. both stared at him "well a'course it worried us Loony" chuckled one of the Billys, who then proceeded to inhale an entire slice of pizza, "she coulda come in here" finished a Billy to his immediate left.

Lunatic shook his head as he charged through the door of the Slice of Life, skidding to a stop on the sidewalk staring at the retreating back of the grungy chainsaw wielding masked girl, "alright sister" called Lunatic adjusting the straps on his forearm guards clicking them nice and snug against his limbs, "time to drop the saw and assume the position, I'm taking you in!" The girl's bare feet slapped against the pavement at her original pace before lowing and finally stopping the saw rumbled sounding almost excited the teeth slithered seductively along its track as the masked girl slooowly leaned around to face Lunatic, for a moment his mud brown eyes lock with the hellish black pits within the girls mask.

The world turned red, red as fire and blood and screaming rage, red as a hellish knife fight between impossibly strong men and women forced to the edge by drugs and magnets and the sweet whisper of madness slithered through his brain, he felt something heavy rest against his shoulder, and abruptly he was jerked from the world tilting vision, black spots began dancing in front of his eyes as he noticed absently the heavy blade of the chainsaw resting against his unarmored shoulder his breastplate lay on the ground before him, he was on his knees before the masked girl, she seemed to tower impossibly tall above him, the blank oval mask was inches from his face and the impossible black of her eyes seemed to gleam within the dark recesses, the warm wet of his own blood making its way across his chest the blade finally caught on his reinforced collar bone the teeth digging in and pulling him down the blade slowly until the tip of his nose rested gently against the blank ceramic the blade stopped but the engine continued to rumble as the girl seemed to become excited, erratic whispers seemed echo from every direction at once "who is this? why does he taste so good? what should we do? he's like us... like us!...LIKE US!"

The voices trailed off into the suddenly quiet air, the streets were deserted the civilians had fled and the wail of the police sirens slowly approaching, the girl stared down at him for an eternity before pulling the saw free from the meat of his freely bleeding shoulder, she straightened to her full height easily six feet tall the masked girl tilted her head, the black pits within the mask seemed to beckon him and he wasn't sure exactly how to proceed his heart hammered in his chest as the girl with the hellish eyes continued to stare at him.

Officer Harris and his partner Officer Cooke where the first to arrive, the tall beefy Italian gripped the wheel of his squad car as his partner loaded the riot gun, the radio blared out a nearly incomprehensible babble that was only just translated within the minds of the two officers as "some crazy mutha fugga with a chainsaw was slicing up people and they needed to stop them" Officer Harris looked at his partner a long suffering sigh escaped him as the radio informed him that there was an injured Titan on the scene, which meant that it was going to be messy at best, Officer Cooke unloaded the rubber rounds and loaded the three inch magnum bear slugs collecting the extra rounds and sliding them into place along the side of the weapons butt stock, the car pulled up less than fifty feet from one of the stranger scenes either officer had seen in their twelve years on the force, and in Jump city that was saying something, the grey skinned masked girl towered over the Titan who kneeled at her feet the blade of the still running chainsaw had eaten its way deep into the shoulder of the young man at her feet the masked girl was leaning in close to his face, nose to mask with the Titan named Lunatic, the young man seemed unaware of the sharp blade eating its way into his body with an almost agonizing slowness sending a cascade of his life blood down his frame.

Officer Harris and Officer Cooke leveled their weapons at the skinny frame of the masked chainsaw wielding girl, Officer Harris shot a glance at his partner who immediately jogged across the street to get a clearer line of fire as Officer Harris darted in the opposite direction when he had a clear bead on the masked girl she had straightened to her full height and jerked the saw free of the kneeling boy at her feet, at that instant the roar of the twelve gauge shotgun signaled the start of what would be a bad day for the two men in uniform.

Harris and Cooke opened fire on the chainsaw wielding masked girl, the loud boom of the three inch magnum rounds drowned out the comparatively quiet spattering of ten millimeter fire that hammered into the grey skinned chainsaw wielding mass murderess, she seemed startled at the suddenness off the attack, as her shirt tore under the barrage of minute projectiles, she lashed out with her dirty bare foot knocking the wounded titan down the street, his scarred muscular body smashed into the front of the squad car bending the bumper and crushing the radiator in an explosion of broken glass, plastic and a rapidly expanding cloud of steam, the hail of gunfire didn't let up for longer than a moment as the officers reloaded their weapons, the masked grey skinned girl raised her chainsaw and charged the shotgun wielding officer Cooke, he jerked back shakily loading his riot gun with more three inch magnum slugs, with a frantic cry he brought the heavy shotgun up, a slim barrier between him and one hundred and fifty hungrily blurring razor sharp teeth, the saw smashed into the heavy rifle chewing through the weapon as though it were made of paper instead of pressure treated steel, officer Cooke's scream was heard only briefly over the roar of the saw.

Officer Harris slammed another magazine into his weapon cursing as he watched the deranged killer brutalize his partner of five years, with a kamikaze cry of fury he charged the maniac firing with every step, when he was less than ten paces from the grey skinned fiend three men in red tackled him to the ground, three Billy Numerous proceeded to wrestle the police officer to the ground disarming him and dragging him from the scene as the gold and black clad Private hive charged in low and fast from behind the grey skinned, she half turned as P.H. hollered an "OORAH" and collided with her side, the impact of the two hundred and fifty pounds of heavily muscled villain had the effect of over balancing her and sending her to the ground, the blade of the saw jumping and scattering about crazily as the teeth failed to find purchase in the concrete, P.H. grabbed the skinny grey girls ankle and proceeded to yank her from the ground whirling her about three full rotations before sending her a good thirty feet down the street to land in a heap of tattered clothing and shrieking steel, "Billy whatever your doing make it quick hittin' her is like hitting a wall" shouted Private Hive, as an army of Billy Numerous raided every pawn shop, hardware store and sporting goods outlet he could find within a hundred yards in either direction, P.H. cursed under his breath when he caught sight of Lunatic.

Bleeding and staring catatonically amidst the wreckage of the front of the police cruiser, Lunatic could feel something tearing but he couldn't seem to figure out exactly what it was, he became aware of three Billy's attempting to remove him from the wreckage of the squad car, "hold on good buddy, ole Billy's gotcha" the trio of red clad men worked with a heavy portable saw and a couple of pry bars, trying to carefully extract their wounded friend from the wreckage, a fourth Billy pulled free of his saw wielding Doppelganger rushing off to a restraunt returning a moment later with a first aid kit as an army of identically clad men marched down the street from both directions, and sprung up from adjacent rooftops at the lead a single Billy donning an ancient cavalry saber and a white cowboy hat, he raised his saber, "Alright Billy! lets show the lady a good time now" with that said there was a roar as two hundred red clad figures armed with everything from sledge hammers to procured firearms, there were even a few sling shots and crochet mallets charged the masked girl.

Everything dissolved into a frantic melee the saw flashed and Billy's were cut down or flung aside the Billy's flanking the rooftops began to shot the strain of the battle as their uniforms began to acquire rents and tears wounds seemed to open up on his form but they held their ground battering her seemingly invulnerable for from all sides as she swung her saw too and fro with eager abandon, cleaving all comers into bloody hunks of meat that seemed to vanish as she cut them, all too soon she stood alone in the street a variety of broken implements all around her, the lead Billy had made his way to the rooftop at some point during the melee, beat up and bloody as the rest he raised his saber and shouted "FIRE!" one hundred pistols, rifles, shotguns, and crossbows discharged simultaneously with a thunderous roar (and the odd twang) sending their deadly payload crashing into and around the raggedly clad girl, jerking her body about with the sheer number of projectiles, soon the noise stopped and the smoke cleared, the girl still stood sheathed in little more than scraps of rags, her saw continued to rumble eagerly as the remaining Billys vanished from sight.

P.H. cursed quietly as he dragged the unresponsive form of Lunatic through the alleyway, "This superhero thing is for the birds Loony" he muttered as he heard a pained moan escape Billy who had tagged along with them, he looked like hell, his clones really only passed on a fraction of the damage taken but every ding adds up, his uniform was hanging off his frame he had several deep cuts on his upper body criss crossing his chest and stomach, he kept his arms wrapped around his trunk as his whole body shook fighting off shock, "well fellas" choked Billy softly, "how bout next time you let ole Billy pick our next outing" P.H. shook his head "we need to get you to a medic before we start talking about outings" it was at this point that Lunatic jerked awake.

Billy had been in alot of scrapes in his time, this one took the cake, he could feel his insides trying to get out, he could see every cut every scrape every time she killed one of him, it was alot to wrap his head around, seeing Loony shake his head and get to his feet was a relief, Billy smiled a bit and promptly collapsed in a slowly growing pool of his own blood, the last thing he heard was the roar of a chainsaw and the shocked cursing of Private Hive.


	11. Chapter Eleven or Backs to the wall

Private Hive whirled around thrusting the still groggy Lunatic behind him and stepping over the bleeding form of Billy Numerous as the Nightmarish chainsaw wielding creature he and his friends had failed to harm thus far stood in the deepening shadows of the alley the blade of her saw dripped crimson and her clothing still hung from her malnourished frame as she took a slow step forward, P.H. adjusted the grip on his making it snugger, less likely to be wrenched from his hands as he lowered his stance and prayed to a god he didn't believe in for a miracle that couldn't happen, then with a desperate cry charged the grey skinned psychopath.

Lunatic shook his aching head, his shoulder throbbed distantly and his vision was blotchy, there was an ear splitting roar echoing around him as his senses slowly started registering the world around him, he slowly turned to see the gold and black clad figure of Private Hive fending off the grey skinned girl with the chainsaw, it was a desperate fight his shield bled sparks as the say skipped and shrieked across its once glossy surface, his fist snaked out around the shield smashing into the heavy ceramic of the girls mask failing to phase her at all as she forced the muscular form of the closest thing to a friend he had in this world to the ground crushing him under his own shield, Lunatic became aware of the sudden and desperate throb of his own heart beat.

P.H. groaned in agony as sparks flew in his face leaving smoldering holes in his mask as the impossibly heavy weight of both the maniac and her saw crushed him into the pavement and sliced an ever deepening rut into his shield, the air was leaving his lungs and the bit of sawblade that peeked over his shield was getting perilously close to his forehead his eyes glanced back and he caught sight of Billy slowly crawling to the safety of a nearby dumpster leaving a trail of blood in his wake when he chanced a glance back at Loony he found to his surprise that Lunatic had vanished, the weight on his chest vanished abruptly and the roar of the saw became a teeth rattling shriek of steel on concrete, he gasped with relief as the intense pressure was lifted from his body leaping to his feet and making a beeline for Billy's bleeding form, carefully he gathered up the still quiet form of his badly injured friend and glanced back to find Lunatic doing his best to try and restrain the maniac, he glanced back and shouted "get out of here get Billy to a doct-erk" at this point the masked girl had grabbed Lunatic by the throat and forced him to look into her mask once more.

Loony squeezed his eyes shut as he fumbled for the revolver at his side, his throat clenched and the muscle therein bulged as he fought the encroaching darkness that threatened to swallow him, finally his clumsily fumbling fingers were able to find the rough grip of his revolver, with a desperate motion he yanked the weapon free of its holster and forced the short barrel under her chin the awkward angle only allowed him one shot before the gun jerked out of his hand, at point blank range the noise and sudden impact of the powerful round startled her enough to lose her grip on the squirming creature in her grasp, Lunatic grabbed a nearby garbage can and yanked it forcibly over her head momentarily pinning her arms before delivering a hammer blow to the masked girls side sending her crashing through the brick wall on the left side of the alley.

P.H. spent a hectic few minutes reducing his shirt to rags in an effort to keep Billy from bleeding out while Lunatic did his level best to fend off the chainsaw wielding psychopath, it seemed an eternity before he was able to stem Billy's blood loss, when at last his shirt was in ruins but Billy seemed stable he turned still staying low behind the cover of the dumpster, Lunatic seemed to be desperately fending off the masked girl dodging her chainsaw even as he attempted to turn her head into pulp, after every swing of the whirling blade he would lash out with a double fisted hammer blow that would manage if only barely to stagger the masked girl, only to cause her to swing the saw once more in an effort to decapitate him, P.H. waited a heartbeat, while she war recovering from one of Lunatics brutal strikes, he came in low and fast lashing out with the edge of his shield aiming for the soft meat of her throat, he hauled back and struck her with all the force he could muster attempting to crush her trachea, he succeeded in denting his shield and pissing her off, with a soft snarl she raised her weapon intent on deal messy death to the golden masked man who dared to strike her tender throat, when she raised her saw Lunatic came in fast and high wrapping his hands around the engine housing of the weapon and doing his level best to wrench it from her hands while P.H. used this distraction to tackle her around her ankle knocking her from her feet, the tangle of limbs that insureds was chaotic at best, Lunatic did his best to pin her upper body using both hands to pin the saw while his legs restrained her left arm, P.H. struggled desperately clinging to her ankles, "WE CAN'T KEEP THIS UP LOONY WE'RE GONNA NEED AN ASSIST!" shouted P.H. as he desperately griped the boney ankles, Lunatic cursed and tried to struggle his communicator free of his belt, the device clicked on, Beastboy's face flickered into view "s'up Loony" chirped the green shape shifter he paused confused, the small camera picked up the strange sight of Lunatic and some weird guy he didn't know both shirtless wrestling with a grey skinned woman wearing a blank oval ceramic mask, "y'know dude, when your enjoying a bit of down time with a lady, it's a good idea to keep an eye out for where you leave your communicator, unless you know, you have a lady that likes to be wa-" Lunatic at this point received a brutal back hand that cracked his jaw and broke his nose, "SEND STARFIRE DAMNIT!" he gurgle/screamed through the blood clogging his nose and throat, as he wrestled the wayward limb back under his control for a moment before she wrenched her weapon free and used the engine housing to smash his head into the pavement, then using her now freed left hand grabbed Lunatic by the arm and flung him down the alley to crash amongst the garbage cans that hid Billy Numerous.

Seeing his friend get hammered by the psycho's weapon P.H. released her ankles and rolled out of her immediate reach gaining his feet a short distance from her maintaining his defensive stance he called to the small golden communicator "SIR! if you do not send assistance soon we will be overcome by superior opposition, we have injured and are in SERIOUS need of an evac do you copy soldier?", Beastboy jerked an involuntary salute before stuttering "SIR! YES SIR!" and signing off.

The masked girl frowned behind the thick ceramic, she hadn't met such resistance before, even the dark man had found it necessary to trap her in a deep pit and fill it partially with concrete to stop her he never managed to cause her pain, it was strange, the boy who was like her, but unlike her was still resisting, still fighting her whispers and that was causing her confusion to well into seething fury,and the man with the shield who shouted and barked was beginning to annoy her with his constant refusal to die, her lips stretched back barring her teeth as she hissed, and yanked the cord connecting her to her sharp sister, Clarissa was becoming angry too, she wanted to find a place to sleep off her recent meal but these three had proven troublesome, already she had lost several teeth to that shield, and the hard surface of the street, she stood a moment unsure of what to do, on the one hand the "man/mob in red" was still breathing and had proven a tease of a meal, and that made Clarissa mad, on the other hand she had fed on five others before hand, so her hunger was no longer so sharp, the "shield man" had hurt both the masked girl and her sharp sister so of course he *had* to die, it simply must be, the girls mused precisely how to kill him for a time.

The precious moments she used to envision Private Hive's death would cost her some considerable comfort, for while she was deciding how best to brutalize the "shield man", Lunatic too that opportunity to hoist up a partially full dumpster and hurled it at her distracted form, P.H. cursed loudly as the suddenly obscured his vision and plowed into the grey ragged form, partially crumpling on impact, "hell's bells! Hoss" coughed Billy staggering over to stand beside the battered and bloody Lunatic, P.H. joined them holding his side an limping, "we should take up mini golf, pizza just doesn't hold the same appeal anymore" he chuckled, the laughter that followed was interrupted by a sharp cough then roar of the chainsaw as the dumpster was cut in half and the ragged grey skinned girl stood before them in the wreckage of the steel trash receptacle, her once blank mask now sported a visible crack down the middle the blank pits of her eyes were all but radiating menace as she marched towards the shocked trio, "boys, ah think its time we all got outta here!" gulped Billy as he staggered down the alley P.H. hot on his heels, he detached the broad golden hexagon from his arm and hurled it at the approaching madwoman's feet tripping her up and buying the trio precious seconds, Lunatic frowned as the alley ended in an eight foot concrete wall, "well thats a wrinkle" muttered Lunatic, "Knock it down Hoss" gasped Billy, P.H. eyed the eight foot wall and the approaching madwoman, yelping as Lunatic grabbed him bodily and hurled him over the wall, as the engine's roar reached a crescendo Billy's injured form was sent after him, P.H. caught his wounded comrade and waited for Lunatic to follow, nothing followed but the roar of the saw's engine.

"Gotta buy them time" thought Lunatic as he ducked a wild swing from the silently raging masked girl, the hellish pitts still made his skin crawl and the whispers crawling through his head were making it hard to deal with the stoic maniac, his energy was leaving him at a worrying pace and his wounds were still seeping as he avoided a nearly fatal thrust from the whirling blade, his reflexive dodge sent him straight into the grasp of her left hand, which curled around his throat in a cutting off the air to his lungs and the blood to his brain, in a desperate bid to save his own life Lunatic hammered his right hand into the already damaged ceramic mask shattering the left side of it, his vision darkened further as his live started to leave his body, it darkened further when the heavy steel engine housing smashed his already battered face into the pavement, the first blow crushed his head into the street, the second blow, he felt something give out within his head and his still opened left eye saw one of his locater studs roll onto the pavement, the third blow sent him reeling into darkness.

The vicious blows drowned out the dull boom of Starfire breaking the sound barrier as she sped towards her battling comrade, her flight was short as she entered the clouds above jump city her communicators tracking system pinpointing Lunatics communicator, what greeted her was a scene of carnage that was uncommon within the Jump City, the entire district had been evacuated as standard with most titan battles the police had escorted the citizens to the numerous safe houses located through out the neighborhood, leaving her a great deal of room should the confrontation turn out to be as violent as evidenced in Lunatic's transmission, the others would follow shortly but their strange teammate had requested her specifically, she caught sight of the alleyway in question and sped towards it just shy of the speed of sound, when she alighted within the confines of the alley she saw a tall grey skinned girl dressed in rags standing over the still form of her comrade, he was laying in a smear of his own blood his head seemed to have been beaten into the pavement using the engine housing of the wicked bladed weapon chained to her right hand, Star's eyes flared brilliant green as she screamed her fury and flew at speeds that would make a bullet weep in envy, she didn't slow for an instant as she smashed into the grey skinned girl and dragged her into the air, the masked girl seemed shocked the blow had forced the air from her lungs this new person had a body like iron and could fly! she gazed at the rapidly retreating ground for a moment the scream of the wind past her ears was almost too loud for her to hear the soft whimper of her sharp sister, Clarissa didn't like heights!, the roar of the saw was drowned out by the roar of the wind, Starfire became aware of burning pain raking at her back like a wild beast, she plucked the grey girl from her back and with a mighty throw hurled her back to the earth, like an errant meteor, the grey skinned saw wielding girl struck the earth leaving behind a deep crater, she lay unmoving within the center of the deep pit, pain wracked her body, she had fallen from so great a height, her mask was broken and her sharp sister was quiet, the green eyed girl hovered nearby her hands glowing her eyes seemed to mock her pain, with will alone the masked girl stood, dragging her silent sister after her, Starfire stared with disbelief as the partially masked girl regained her feet and started walking towards her, making no effort to raise the saw she simply strode towards her position, Star raised her glowing right hand "you have harmed my...teammate even so I do not wish to destroy you, surrender!" The masked girl put on a burst of unexpected speed and leapt at the flying alien girl, wrapping her arms around the orange titan locking her gaze upon the startled green eyes of her attacker, the momentary battle of wills with brief but bitter as the grey skinned girl whispered into her mind bringing out her most secret nightmares and her deepest fears, Starfire's scream echoed across the city, and drew the other titans like a fireworks display.

Robin and Cyborg were the first to arrive they found the still form of their teammate curled upon the ground hugging her knees with a desperate strength as she shook with quiet sobs, the unconscious form of the masked girl lay nearby her arms at unnatural angles her left leg obviously broken and the heavy looking chainsaw at her side still and silent still tacky with the mingled blood of Lunatic, Billy Numerous, Private Hive, and the recently slain citizens of jump city, Robin rushed over to the quietly sobbing alien girl, "Star" he murmured reaching for her shoulder, as his fingers brushed her form she whirled on him teeth bared and eyes glowing her hands sheathed in hellish destructive green light, for a moment the suddenness of the attack from a source he never would have expected paralyzed him for a moment too long and he was caught unawares by the crushing grasp of his closest friend, Robin remained still as his best friend sobbed brokenly into his chest, broken only by periodic whimpers in her native tongue.

Unsteadily Robin stroked her hair and whispered soothingly to her, Cyborg moved into the crater where the still form of the grey skinned girl lay, his right arm had locked into his sonic cannon which he trained on the still form, his left eye wasn't registering any heat from her body or her weapon, it was as if she were dead but he could clearly see her breathing, he stowed his cannon and approached pulling a set of hand cuffs from his hip compartment with careful motions he cuffed her arms behind her back securing her for the moment as he radioed for the Jump City Special Containment Unit, after confirming they were on their way he wandered back up the side of the crater to check on his comrades, Starfire was asleep in Robins arms and he was gently soothing her hair as her rocked her, unaware of his actions, Cyborg cleared his throat as quietly as he could, when he had Robins attention he informed his leader that the containment unit would be there momentarily, Robin gave a nod and made his way to the car settling into the back seat with Starfire, Cybrog waited on the edge of the crater for the J.C.C.U.

Raven materialized in the alley in a flicker of shadow Beastboy crouched at her side in the form of a wolf, he sniffed about the alley growling at the bitter stink of blood until Raven`s slender hand touched the fur of his head and he glanced over following her gaze to the sight of Lunatic`s savaged form, and the two shaking guardians at his side, Billy Numerous had managed to hold the chunk of pipe he had found in a menacing fashion despite his injuries Private Hive stood slightly in front of Billy his shield between him and the new comers ``hey P.H. aren't these two of them Titans, ah think ah recognize the girly but the green dog ain't so familiar`` twanged Billy his legs shaking unsteadily as he at last lowered the pipe and used it as a make shift crutch to take the weight off his leg, "Yeah Billy these would be the same ones that jumped us in the parking lot, minus the big metal guy, can you two help Loony he's hurt pretty bad" P.H. nodded towards their fallen friend, backing up and hooking Billy's arm over his broad shoulder making his way towards the street, Beastboy resumed his human form and wandered over to the still form of the newest titan, Raven followed her feet inches from the ground as they stared down at the nearly unrecognizable form before them Beastboy wasted no time calling for emergency medical services, as Raven knelt beside Lunatic her hands glowing a pale blue, his life force was slowly fading, she propped up the remaining energy with the power of her will alone as they waited for the medi-evac, Beastboy stood silent vigil over her concentrating form his skinny form between her and whatever would do her harm.


	12. Chapter 12 or through a shadow darkly

Robin sat within the conference room head resting in his hands as the other, still active Titans filed in as their leader took a deep breath and started in on the situation, "were currently down two Titans both Starfire and Lunatic are unconscious but stable thanks in no small part to Raven's assistance" with that he nodded at the dark teen who sat impassively beside Beastboy we had his fingers gently interlaced with her own, the gesture helped her keep the distress that swirled around her mind at bay, Beastboy piped in "Whats wrong with them? I mean Loony I understand he had his brains smashed in by the chainsaw chick but what about Star? She hasn't got a scratch on her but she won't wake up" Cyborg too that one, "we've had to keep her sedated for the time being, as strong as she is, if she were to become violent we'd be hard pressed to restrain her without hurting her, she seems to be suffering some kind of prolonged mental attack, we're hoping she'll snap out of it in a few hours if not..." Cyborg let the statement hang for a moment before falling silent. "Raven, couldn't you enter her mind and bring her around or I don't know something?" asked Robin massaging his tired eyes as he slumped back into his chair, frustrated that he had no opponent that he could physically strike, Raven shook her head slowly "its not as simple as turning on a light switch, I can't just wave my hand and pop her awake i have to know why she is so troubled and then puzzle out in what way i could help her, what demons I'd need to face so to speak and how best to face them" she sighed at last "I'll try and think of something but I'll need time".

And so down two members each of the remaining Titans set out to take care of the city as best they could under the circumstances, Beastboy began patrols that had him scouring the city all hours of the day sleeping when needed eating when needed and bringing down every criminal he could get his hands on, Cyborg monitored the vitals of his two unconscious teammates making sure their bodies didn't suffer any decline cooperating with doctors and specialists from around the world and a few from well outside it in an effort to patch up his damaged friends, Robin made several calls to Gotham city gathering all the information he could get from his mentor and the Arkam asylum inmate directory, sending all relevant information to Raven who researched her comatose friends condition almost obsessively, tearing through tome after tome, burning incense and meditating near their still forms in an effort to make contact, Lunatic's mind may as well have been an iron box for all that she was able to peer into it, the magnets which startlingly enough continued to function despite the multiple skull fractures he had attained, made getting anything but static out of his mind almost impossible, Starfire however had no such devices in place and her mind yielded to gentle but insistent prods from Raven's own mental whispers.

Raven sat exhausted beside Starfire's bedside, so far almost a week had past and she had finally managed to glimpse the shade that haunted her friends mind and left her locked within herself, sipping her tea and absently scratching the panting beast resting beside her she took a moment to focus her mind on the coming task, memory of her first nearly disastrous attempt to wrest Starfire from the creatures grasp crept into her mind, leaping headlong into her friends mind was much like imursing one's self in a pool of warm water, everything about her extraterrestrial friend was warm and inviting, she was open, caring, and held few secrets she was not willing to share, this time as raven entered her friends mind the warmth had a feverish heat to it a sickly cloying too sweet feel to her friends aura, a sticky dripping voice exhaled moistly into her ear "looks like another tasty fish has entered the pond" and then it engulfed her slithering into every pour, she opened her mouth to scream and felt as though she were drowning and then it was in her. Raven smiled just a bit with pride, the...THING, whatever it was hadn't expected to be attacked from all sides by the myriad fractions of her mind assaulted it, the oily creature could barely scream as it was rent apart by Rage and left to boil away in the light of her fury. This time she would be ready for it.

As she stood up the green wolf rolled to his feet and followed her claws clicking with each step tail swaying in time with her steps, Beastboy's thoughts were dark filled with worry and he nudged the pale skinned sorceress whining softly she stopped and crouched down to her friends eye level smiling a small secret smile and petting his ears whispering "this time I'm ready so don't worry" she kissed the tip of his nose and turning on her heel continued down the hall to the infirmary.

Starfire and Lunatic were exactly as she had left them, Starfire lay sweating and softly whimpering in her bed the guard rail on either side of her bed had been bent and twisted as though made of play dough and not the rather sturdy aircraft aluminum, the orange tinted alien girl whimpers and tightened her grip on the metal frame and they gave a protesting groan before finally giving up the ghost and pulling free of their housing with a startling shriek, she held them for a moment longer before loosening her grip and letting them clatter to the floor, Beastboy crouched behind raven in his human form whistling softly "remind me not to try holding her hand the next time she is at the dentist" he muttered, absently rubbing his hands together in imagined discomfort, Raven gave him a pointed glanced and a slightly raised eyebrow "y'think?" she sighed, as she brought a comfortable chair over to Starfire's bedside and cleared away the twisted metal with a flicker of her "gifts", settling once more into the chair she began to softly chant as Beastboy took up his quiet vigil beside the door once more assuming the form of a great green wolf and curling nose to tail to silently watch over his two dearest friends.

As Raven softly chanted, bringing to bare her rather formidable mental defenses and reinforcing them tightening their borders and double checking to make sure that not a single seam of crack could be found the air around her gained a slight chill, her fragmented selves stood close at hand ready to lend any assistance they could, even Rage, collared and chained between Bravery and Wisdom, stood begrudgingly in attendance, only the enticing offer of being able to lash out against this foe secured her obedience if only for the moment. Raven exhaled and with that action escaped her body and hovered over the room for a moment taking in the auras of her friends Beastboy was a subdued blue obviously out of sorts, understandable given present circumstances, as she turned her gaze upon the two hospital beds she observed the oily slickness polluting their auras, with Lunatics magnetic augmentation giving him that annoying mental static helping him was going to be...difficult, but she could see glimpses of Starfire's radiant aura winking almost teasingly between the slick murk of the creature's stifling presence, the moon between storm clouds.

When Starfire's aura once again shone through the slick murk Raven shot through the gap and plunged into the feverish warmth of Star's mind, it was much like sinking into a pitch black sauna, she could sense just beyond arms reach moving shapes within the moist heat, abruptly the deafening shriek of talons on steel rattled her nerves unbearably, eyes blacker still than the darkness surrounding her watched and waited a slash of sickly yellow teeth revealed its presence as with a gesture more out of instinct than skill she lashed out with her will shattering the smile sending jagged yellow teeth in every direction and instantly dispelling the darkness encasing her, a low agonized moan rattled her heart within her chest as the creature pulled back away from the strange creature that caused it such an unfamiliar sensation, Abruptly Raven found herself surrounded on all sides by impossibly tall trees each stretching up as tall as a skyscraper, laughter exploded around her like a string of firecrackers, people were gathered here hundreds of orange skinned men and women in varying states of comfortable nudity, some lounging beside deep pools of warm water that bubbled up from beneath the broad roots of the great trees, others sailing through the air chasing each other, some where caught and they tumbled through the air thrashing and wriggling as they attempted to get free and continue the game yet others were gathered around various shelves carved into the great bowls of the trees sampling strange foods and remarking on the flavors, everyone seemed to be having a great deal of fun, Raven's face flamed at the sight of so much exposed flesh, Timid, who had tagged along with the others more terrified of being alone than of venturing into a strange mind was mortified and hid behind Rude who was blatantly ogling the replete nude forms of several naked Tamaranian men and women making lewd remarks that had Timid nearly in tears, Raven spared a moment to shoot a scathing glance at her troubling doppelganger, silencing them as she cast her senses out to find her wayward friend, amongst the hollow shades and backdrops of her friend's memories she spotted the huddled form within one of the giant trees, curled around herself, within the bowls of a single sickly tree whose titanic form was decayed and obviously ancient, Raven and her fragmented emotions circled the tree several times and could find no opening from the ground, drifting at last into the air she spotted a small opening barely large enough for a child to pass through she and her doubles drifted down and through the rotting wood.

Darkness and the sweet sent of slowly rotting wood overwhelmed her senses, enormous pale grubs each as big as a city bus chewed noisily upon great chucks of the rotting carcass of the ancient tree, perpetuating the cycle of life and death within the shelter of the behemoth's corpse, ever downward she drifted as scuttling horrors chittered in the darkness, finally at long last within the black heart of the tree she found her friend softly sobbing in the utter dark, relief filled her core as she drifted closer to the curled form of her friend, Wisdom cleared her throat "we are not alone" calmly intoned the yellow clad emotion, as the darkness surrounding the small group of gathered emotions shuddered and collapsed around them Bravery and Wisdom raised their hands summoning a wall comprised of their collective will power and precision, a combination of Bravery's tenacity and Wisdom's keen sense of positioning caused the darkness to break over the barrier like a wave on stone scattering the darkness in all direction, Raven watched as the wisps of oily essence slithered into the wood a sense of foreboding settled like a heavy mantle upon her shoulders, the whole of the tree began to shudder, Bravery grinned madly and nudged Rage "looks like we get to cut you loose after all eh four-eyes?" Rage simply growled as the heavy armored carapace of the giant worm crashed into view, its mandibles wrenched open and as acidic spittle rained down upon the small group of gathered emotions the beast squealed deafeningly wrenching a scream from Starfire, Raven crossed the three short paces to her hysterical friend just as the beast bore down upon them all.

Deep in the recesses of his mind Thomas was alone standing naked before his families' home or what was left of it staring down at the bodies of his parents, he knew that the creatures lurking in the shadows wanted him to be horrified, to weep and scream and tear at his hair, but the magnets kept working their magic, he felt some small amount of remorse, he had long ago come to terms with the disappearance of his mother and father, they very well could be dead, a long sigh escaped him as he looked around the limited land landscape presented him he could comfortably see the edges of the property could walk up to the fence and open the gate but he couldn't cross the threshold he couldn't seem to escape this small burnt out strip of land a frustrated grunt made its way past his lips as he looked down at his naked body, "why the hell am I naked in my own dream?" he grumbled as he wandered about scrubbing his fingers through his hair and feeling very peculiar when he only encountered his scalp and didn't bump his finger on even one of the seven disks that should be there, he stepped over his fathers mauled body and entered the shattered ruins of his once upon a time home, unless he missed his guess the place had been knocked down by some bot or another he could plainly see the giant foot prints here and there, the creatures in the shadows watched and waited unsure of how to deal with someone who just wasn't afraid of them.

-teh notes-  
I want to thank all my reviewers for thier positive feedback, and the readers for thier considerable patience with me, my work scedual is hecktic during the summer months and I find that what little time I have is taken up with sleeping, so thank you all for the support this project is sort of an aid to improve my admittedly lacking writing skills so please continue to assist me by pointing out gramar errors, spelling mistakes, etc.

Your in writing Saint  
P.S. Thanks much for the kind reviews Bergles


	13. Chapter 13 Robin the Hunter

Writer's Notes (cause I like em at the top better)  
I'd like to appologise for the rather lengthy delay in following up on my ficlet, between life work etc I write(type) when i can and unfortunatly summer time is the busiest time of year for me hopefully as things slow down a bit I'll be able to add further instalments, I'd like to thank everyone for thier patience with my spotty schedual, and once again sorry for the short chapter. -Saint-

Robin crouched low on the rooftop across from the jewelry store he was currently staking out, the rather through interrogation of a particularly talkative drug dealer had revealed that a heist was being planned on the very jewelry store that the titans leader was currently watching, he could still see Starfire laying in the infirmary feverish, softly crying. he clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, this caused him to miss the rather spectacular explosion of glass and concrete from the store front being burst open, startled from his self deprecation he stared down at the scene the entire front of the store had been turned into a cloud of broken glass brick work, standing in the cloud of debris a trio of men stood, the largest was easily taller than Cyborg nearly seven feet of rippling muscle in an undersized stained white tee shirt that only served to enhance the look of his heavily muscled frame, the pockets of his cargo pants were bulging with ill gotten gains and likely a few barely concealed weapons, the runner up was possessed of a fine runner's physique his dark skin was blotched with concrete dust, his short hair was neatly brushed before the explosion now his track suit and fine runners were covered in a thick layer of dust and grime he had a heavy looking bag slung over his shoulder and was animatedly laughing, the last one was just slightly taller than Robin himself, though height rarely bothered him, he was wrapped head to toe in bandages wearing a baggy jogging suit and carrying a duffel bag that bulged ominously.

Robin leveled his grapnel gun at the ledge of the jewelry store when it connected solidly he activated the high power winch which proceeded to propel him across the street and down towards the taller boy with the suspicious duffel bag, they had just finished dusting themselves off when Robin made his appearance slamming both feet into the chest of the smallest member of their group catapulting him back into the store's interior with a resounding explosion of splintering wood and broken glass, the remaining two spent a moment looking dumbfounded at their fallen "friend" then back at the boy wonder, "this is the part where you surrender" offered Robin helpfully a rueful smirk gracing his features.

The remaining two criminals actually took the time to think it over almost ten seconds passed before the big fella said "nah" and lunged at Robin, meaty fists swinging wildly as he attempted to pummel the smaller man into submission, Robin saw the wild swing coming a mile away ducking under the blow only to stand up strait again leaping a foot or two into the air, and slamming his forehead into the beefy man's chin, the blow was devastating teeth cracked as the man's jaw was forced back into his skull, he swayed for a moment but kept his feet wrapping his arms around the slim form before him in a desperate bid to contain the agile teen in front of him, Robin dipped under his thick arms and leapt backwards, hand turning the leap into a back flip to gain a bit of extra space, landing and snapping out his Bo staff, the dust covered pair lunged towards the boy wonder at considerable speed forcing the masked teen onto the defensive, twisting and ducking away from swift and startlingly accurate strikes forcing him back step by step, until he found himself toppling over a fire hydrant, using his unexpected tumble to his advantage, he snapped his hand into his belt and slapped one of his exploding disks onto the side of the inconvenient obstacle, hand springing away as the explosive charge detonated rather violently sending the chunk of steel hurdling towards the largest of the pair the muscle bound criminal sailed to land in a heap ten feet away, the remaining crook glanced to his fallen comrade, shrugged his shoulders and continued the attack a grin widening across his dark features, his fists swung madly as he continued to press his attack, seeing his opening Robin thrust his staff forward hammering the blunt end straight into the taller man's diaphragm causing the breath to explode from the mans lungs, as he doubled over, robin whirled his staff once more and brought the end down hard onto the top of the winded criminals cranium with a resounding "clang".

As the final criminal toppled to the ground Robin frowned "...clang?" quickly trussing up each of the would-be thieves and dragging them out into the street, Robin proceeded to remove their hats revealing a network of half healed scars and four metal studs jutting from their craniums, "what on earth happened to these guys?" muttered Robin as he took his communicator from his belt and contacted Cyborg, "uh Cy, I need you to come down here theres something I need you to check out", Cyborg's partially metallic features appeared on the screen "whats the deal? didja get your cape stuck in an escalator again?" he teased watching Robin's features darken with embarrassment at the memory, Cyborg frowned when the masked teen glanced to the left and cursed, cutting the conversations short as he snapped the communicator closed.

Carson Renault had it tough, his mom was trucking towards drinking herself to death, his dad was doing five to twenty in the state pen for trying to rob a convenience store and shooting the clerk dead, and he was next to nobody on the street, running errands for people worth a damn, that were just important enough to not risk a standard courier, he was a nobody, so when his boss told him that there was a doctor out there offering to supe up people for a song, he figured "why the hell not?" It wasn't long before he found himself sitting on a bus with almost thirty others all sitting very still and trying to look tough as the bus bounced along towards the heavily wooded back roads on the outskirts of Jump City, soon after he and the others we ushered off the bus and led into the old insane asylum, they passed through the double doors and into the darkness beyond, the way was lit with a scattering of battery powered lanterns that buzzed faintly in the moist heat of the decrepit buildings interior, it seemed that the whole building had been retrofitted into some kind of temporary hospital, several people in thick biohazard suits complete with filtered masks and infrared goggles marched about pushing gurneys coved by red stained sheet, some of those sheet twitched and moaned, others giggled sending cold chills dancing up Renault's spine. At last they were brought into a well lit amphitheater where a tall asian man with a pair of red lensed goggles and some kind of CIA looking ear piece, stood giving orders to the various men in clean suits, finally he turned to address the twenty odd individuals before him, his thin face lined with disgust as he surveyed his subjects, the skinny scientist type didn't look too pleased.

"Gentlemen" soothed Professor Chang as he surveyed the twenty hoodlums he had been given, "I'm sure you are all wondering exactly why you where chosen for this little experiment, the simple fact of the matter is that amongst your peers you were considered the least...useful, either you made a serious mistake and this is your penance, or you were simply to stupid to be useful otherwise" the snarls of outrage from several of the beefier members of the test group were quickly silenced as Prof Chang's assistants leveled several submachine guns in the direction of the testing group, "however" continued the grinning professor, "you are perhaps the luckiest of our test groups, as you get to sample our finished product and hopefully prove yourself more useful to your employers in the future" with that the professor turned on his heel and stalked towards a set of double doors the briefest flash of a blood spattered operating theater beyond set Renault's guts to shaking as he and the others were herded into separate rooms in groups of five, stripped of their clothes and any belongings, had metal detectors run over their entire frames, Renault watched in horror as one of the men, a tall ugly man with a substantial beer belly had his jaw forcibly pried open and a pair of pliers was forced into his mouth with a scream one of his teeth was wrenched from his jaw and cast aside, soon they were forced into chairs and their heads shaved, one man a short, skinny, Hispanic man managed to get hold of a scalpel and began swiping at the men in the hazmat suits cursing and swearing as he backed towards the door, one of the masked, suited men drew his side arm and shot the desperately struggling man twice in the stomach before returning to his task, there were no more struggles after that, the fear of death simply proving too great to allow for further resistance, it wasn't long before Renault found himself receiving an injection and then the world faded away.

Renault shook his head as reality washed over him once more, the visions were getting worse, blinking and glancing around he couldn't remember where he was, his arm was flopping around annoyingly and for a moment he considered tearing it off, before realizing that would be crazy after all then none of his shirts would fit right! He giggled for a moment before forcing his arm into its socket once more, it was strange not feeling pain any more, the sight of his dislocated arm should have brought with it pants wetting pain and the fear that comes with it, now however it was simply a distraction, but a distraction from what? All of a sudden he saw the masked boy wonder Robin round the corner staff in hand ordering him to stop, Ren sighed and shook his head charging off at a dead run, skidding around a corner and continuing his attempt to escape the masked titan that was hot on his heels.


	14. Chapter 14 or Hello Dolly

Saint's Log- Ladies and gentlemen boys and girls I regret to inform you that the rumors of my death have been greatly exagerated, I am alive and well... sort of, anyway after much delay, dicking around, and general procrastinating.. I HAVE RETURNED! and I just want to say sorry for neglecting you. Anywho to all and sundry I give you another chapter of Thomas' continuing oddessy. hopefully I have some more inspiriation and won't leave this one on the shelf for another six months, ugh!

-My infintite love to you all (Especially you, Bergles you rascal you ;-)

It felt like months, though it may have only been hours or even minutes, thats the problem with being in a dream, very little makes sense especially the passing of time, the cloud dotted skies never darkened for more than a moment as a cloud would soften the glare of the sun, it was neither hot nor cold and it was surprisingly noisy birds chirping, the odd clucking of the escaped chickens pecking away at the ground, and a single pig joyously wallowed in the thick mud surrounding the heavily leaking cistern beside the house. Thomas surveyed these happenings with a dissatisfied frown, "Maaaaan this blows" he whined, for perhaps the fiftieth time as he sat naked upon the stoop of the family farm.

Around the back of the house, in the long shadows that seemed to point every which way, sat a crate, made from weather worn planks, and wrapped in rusting chains with a heavy padlock perched on top like a mad bow, upon a demented gift. In the deeper shadows of the crates interior something was breathing, waiting.

Robin slipped around the corner in hot pursuit of the injured criminal, his chest ached as he kept up the staggering pace, he palmed his grapnel gun and switched out the adhesive projectile and cord lining up a shot on the small of the rapidly fleeing criminal, whom moments ago wrenched his arm back into socket and giddily laughed. Robin was grimly reminded of the joker, shaking off the momentary thought the masked teen hero fired and was startled when the giggling man seemed to trip, roll onto his injured shoulder and come up with a trash can lid, hurling it back at the pursuing titan, Robin's eyes had barely a moment to widen before the hurled projectile collided with his face.

Ren sighed and jogged back to the reeling titan, watching as the titan's eyes focused, "you suck at this hero thing guy" giggled the slightly maladjusted crook as he cart wheeled away from the recovering titan, Robin thumped the side of his head with the heel of his hand as he lurched after the gamboling criminal palming an explosive disk he hurled it two yards to the right of his quarry. Ren didn't even flinch as the small metal disk struck the ground far to the side, he half turned to taunt the teen hero mid stride when the explosive went off and flattened him against the adjacent wall. "tell me how to do my job..." muttered Robin as he rubbed his nose and called the JCPD to pick up the mess.

Raven watched as the chitinous behemoth bore down on her, her fear came unsurprisingly, but the realization that the creatures weapon was in fact fear was equally obvious to her, she focused her energy and softly chanted as the creature obscured Starfire and herself, the power that the pale sorceress called forth from the endless blackness of the dark half of her soul and the mind rending horror of realities beyond, and with a soft gap the creature un-made itself dispersing like a wisp of acrid smoke.

Raven opened her eyes and exhaled slow and soft as she rubbed grit from her eyes and popped her stiff back, she swayed to her feet and looked down upon her extraterrestrial friend and was relieved to find the princess floating above her bed curled up and smiling raven brushed her sweaty hair out of her face, and pulled her cloak from her shoulders in an effort to rid her self of the sticky heat that seemed to follow her from the depth of that rotted tree, Beastboy was sprawled out on the floor snoring softly having abandoned his canine form sometime earlier in the day. Raven shielded her eyes as she gazed out of the infirmary's only window, the sun was sinking into the ocean, she had been under for hours, her throat felt like sand paper, and her limbs like lead. She turned and closed the blinds behind her as she turned back to the room and surveyed the scene, she gathered Garfield up with a slight exertion of power and walked out of the room with her friend in tow intent on depositing him in his room and sequestering herself in the bathroom among scented candles and hot water until she felt like rejoining the rest of the world once more.

As Raven reclined within the steam filled bathroom neck deep in hot water and suds, and a new book floating lazily above the tub, an intruder made his way through the half familiar halls of the Titan Tower, he walked slowly and silently each measured foot fall as controlled and calculated as his own thoughts, every shift and movement carefully scrutinized and cast aside or acted on as was necessary to get him closer to his objective, his body was as a vacuum absorbing air but displacing nothing, he drifted to the doors marked "Infirmary" his hands instinctively tapped out the entry code, the doors whisked open and allowed entrance to the anomaly, Starfire blinked awake momentarily as the sudden chill of his passing seemed to jar her still sensitive psyche with its unnatural symmetry, her eyes took in the tall lean form, the golden robe and strong angular features of Brother Blood, her eyes widened and she gasped, raising her hands to flatten her foe, the aged psychic barely offered her a moments consideration before overloading her central nervous system and rendering the extra terrestrial titan unconscious.

Raven frowned as a sense of unease washed over her sending a chill through her body that even the hot water of the tub couldn't mask, she slipped from the soapy water and donned a terry cloth robe before making her way to the infirmary leaving a trail of water droplets behind her, the first thing she noticed as she arrived was that the infirmary door was in the process of closing, she clapped her hand on the door pulling it open to reveal the infirmary exactly as she had left it, Starfire was calmly sleeping, and Lunatic was still unconscious, his healing was taking longer than anyone had expected, though the doctor they had called in to help put him back together assured them all that he was recovering with remarkable speed. Finding nothing amiss and shaking her head at her own paranoia, she drifted back down the hall towards the bathroom intent on soaking away the chill from her little trip down the hall, from the corner of the infirmary Brother Blood relaxed his stance, the stillness of his thoughts brought with it a pleasant calm making this little trip to retrieve one of his wayward students an almost pleasant diversion from his daily life of paper work and balancing the little power struggles that took place within the Hive, "now then mister Thomas I think you've been napping long enough, I have need of your particular talents" the aged headmaster exhaled and leapt into the blue static labyrinth of the sort of hero's mind.

Lunatic frowned and got to his feet, something was wrong... more so than usual, he didn't have long to wait before the source of the strange feeling made itself known to him, "Hello Thomas" soothed the headmaster of HIVE academy, there was a long silence as Lunatic struggled to wrap his head around the presence of Brother Blood within his mind, "don't try to understand the particulars of how? and why? simply accept that I am here and listen to what I have to say." Lunatic nodded dumbly as the headmaster continued his lecture, "I need you to find the girl that did this to you and free her from the holding facility outside of jump city, certain parties are offering substantial monetary compensation for her release, and of course you would be entitled to a significant percentage" Brother Blood smirked and let the offer hang in the air for a few moments looking over his student's mental landscape, the general destruction and the abundant animal life was telling to say the least. Thomas mulled over his options before replying "how much exactly is a significant percentage?" Brother Blood rolled his eyes "well if we deduct the cost of returning your consciousness to your body I think you'll have about ten grand left over" chuckled the headmaster "my rates are high but your options are pretty much non existent, so what will it be Mister Thomas?" Lunatic frowned and gave the headmaster a hard stare "why me exactly? You have access to people with a great deal more power than me, Billy could infiltrated the outer wall easily enough and swarm the place, hell Kyd Wykkyd could be in and out in thirty seconds, I fall into under whelming when it comes to sheer scope of power at your disposal, if she was *that* important couldn't you organize the HIVE into a strike force and attack enmass?" Brother Blood shook his head slowly "Lunatic i don't have the time to explain the complex power balance that is in place between all the factions within this world and parts beyond, suffice it to say that the nail that stands out is introduced to the hammer rather hastily, perhaps after you have done as I've asked I shall explain the hierarchy of this world in a bit more detail, for now will you do this or do I turn your brain into cottage cheese and look further down the line? or do you wake up and make a bit of money?" Loonies' face colored hotly a he struggled to restrain his temper "I don't like being backed into a corner headmaster, but I can't see a whole lot of choice here" growled the part time hero. "Excellent" purred Brother Blood triumph singing though the three syllable utterance, then the world imploded and Lunatic was suddenly and violently aware of the sensation of being slapped in the face.


	15. Chapter 15 or The Graveyard Polka

-Writer's Log-

I'm doing my best to make up for lost time and to try and get back into the swing of things, blessedly I'll have more time for fun in my life, thus I give you the next installment of Thomas and the Titans, please enjoy. -The Saint

Robin reclined against the wall of a secure room in the Jump City intensive care ward, his tired bloodshot eyes watching the broad, armor plated back of Cyborg, who sat hunched over a series of monitors and control panels, the three would be criminals were sedated and restrained in separate rooms, the sheer volume of sedatives needed to keep the three criminals under, though it was readily apparent that the fugitives circulatory system and natural filters were working overtime screening out the drugs almost as fast as they could be administered. Cyborg finally looked up from the readouts with a disgusted sigh "you guessed right the whole set up is a primitive adaptation of Loonies' set up, way more primitive, and kind of, I dunno slapped together, like every component was hand crafted. I think these three are prototypes for a production model." The boy wonder's eyes widened marginally "you mean to tell me there are more of these guys running around the city!" exclaimed the exhausted teen, fumbling with his utility belt for a moment before finding a small flat disk that rattled fetchingly, he fiddled with a small lever on the side of the disk and tipped the device upside down against his lips, the Titan's leader swallowed three small pills dry, they struck his empty stomach like lead and began to burn away his fatigue, his aches and pains left his body as the mildest euphoria softened the word around him he reminded himself once again that this was the last all nighter this month, "crime never sleeps" he muttered to himself, Cyborg's brow furrowed and he pretended not to hear even as the mask teen vanished into the night off to hunt, this was *his* city and he'd be damned if he let the little bean pole have all the fun, with that Cyborg strode out of the hospital room and joined the hunt.

The Lunatic jerked awake as the pain of being struck jarred him into awareness, his left hand shot out from beneath the thin hospital blanket seeking his attacker and succeeding only in knocking over his IV unit and toppling him from the bed and onto the cold hard tiles of the infirmary floor, He managed to twist mid fall landing on his hands and knees , the jarring impact sent an incessant throbbing jangling into his skull, his vision swam and dark spots danced before his eyes as a dull roar filled his ears, his limbs shook uncontrollably and frustrated tears escaped his eyes, unexpected shame seized him in it's merciless jaws and shook him, horrific fantasies of crippling weakness danced before his eyes as he lost his fight against gravity and fell onto his side, curled into himself and struggled to against frustration and shame to find that still place deep within and the relief it promised.

It came as a shock to himself standing before a mirror still pool of water as dark as the void and impossibly deep, all around him hung the black curtain of his subconscious, an expectant stillness seemed to settle about him as his eyes came to rest upon the pale figure that stood opposite him across the dark pool. She, for indeed the person across from him was a "she", stood out starkly from the darkness that surrounded the pool, her hair seemed to drift lazily about her shoulders, leaving her face obscured by the writhing strands, though tom had no need to see her features, nor her tall, scarred, painfully thin frame because her hellish black eyes that shone darker than the darkness, hungry and strangely excited, their shared bareness seemed oddly fitting given their intimate location, then she smiled, and Thomas found himself tipping forward and sinking into the cold dark water.

The incessant squeal of some kind of frustratingly complex medical device was the first thing that Tom became aware of, the second was far more distressing it was the cold sticky feeling of his naked buttocks doing it's level best to adhere to the cold tiles of the infirmary floor. The infuriating whine precluded the door bursting open and a harried doctor rushed in her hair tied up in a sever bun and a name tag designating her Dr. Veronica Hildegard pinned to her pristine lab coat, she barked orders to the trio of nurses and demanded to know where their patient had vanished to, Tomas grinned broadly and leapt up with a shout of "SURPRISE!", the startled cries of the nurses and doctor were drowned out almost immediately by Starfire's shocked scream, and the explosion of her reflexively hurled star bolt as it took out the wall across from her and knocked out the power to the entire floor, in the gloom of the dust filled infirmary the Lunatic cackled with delight.

From the pitch dark, humid depths of Raven's private bathroom, said Titan sighed contentedly "looks like Loony managed to pull through without us", a gasp followed by a satisfied moan could be heard in the warm wet dark as her partner's strong hands gently worked the knots from her aching shoulders, he murmur softly as his nimble fingers located another knot and began working it from her slowly relaxing shoulders coaxing another gasp and a low throaty sound from deep within her chest that sent the blood racing through his veins, his fingers dipped beneath the soapy water as he leaned in close grazing her slender neck with his sharp teeth,earning a gasp of a different sort and earned him a rare happy laugh from the sorceress. Raven shivered as the warm fingers caressed her warm flesh "wicked wicked boy" she whispered into Garfield's pointed ear before dragging him into the soapy water with her.

It was an interesting scene that awaited Robin and Cyborg, when they arrived back at the tower after a long fruitless night of scouring the city for information, the only thing unusual that they had been able to gather was that most of the criminal organizations seemed to be pruning their less effective members and shipping them off to god knows where. However I digress, back at the tower Robin and Cyborg stood in slack jawed shock as they watched Lunatic and Starfire sharing a vegetarian pizza and slathered thick layers of sour cream upon the already unhealthy meal, the food choice in and of itself was almost normal, however the fact that Loony and Star were sitting together... and chatting, smiling even as they discussed some inanity about cream soda, and barbeque flavored peanuts. Raven was sitting at the far end of the couch, well out of immediate "splatter" range reading, her hood about her shoulders and smiling faintly as she read from a small leather bound book, a tiny magnifying glass in her hand as she deciphered some clue about the, likely, hand written text, sitting on the floor beside her feet was Beastboy playing a hand held game with the volume off periodically adding to the discussion, or piping in a disgusted sound, it just seemed so normal. Cyborg shattered the tableau with an excited yell and booming footsteps, scooping up Starfire and Loony crushing them (mostly Loony) in his bombastic embrace excitedly chattering while Star giggled and Loony barked his outrage at the invasion of his personal space, Beastboy and Raven shared a small secret smile and colored momentarily as Robin proceeded to go boneless in the doorway sliding down the wall to sit in an untidy sprawl, a silly relieved grin on his face.

The news that both Titans had been under for almost two weeks was a grim but not unexpected unpleasentry, Loony took the news that his rifle and chest plate with a sort of restrained panic, reassurances that the rest of his weapons and armor were accounted for did something to relieve the jittery youth. Robin dropped his final bomb of the night by informing the rest of the titans about the enhanced criminals, that resembled their newest member.

As the meeting was adjourned, Robin placed his hand on Stars and smiled walking her to her room and speaking in low tones about the things he hadn't the nerve to speak of with others, "I'm glad your alright Star, I was... the team was, well.." he cleared his throat nervously and started in shock as Starfire gently rubbed her thumb against the back of his hands, smiling reassuringly her luminous green eyes glowing understandingly as she waited, Robin finally managed to organize his thoughts into some semblance of coherency "I was worried" he muttered softly, coloring with embarrassment at the admission. Starfire leaned in and kissed his cheek softly and murmured a quiet "thank you Richard", they sat quietly together in the privacy of the conference room, enjoying the quite and the company.

All was not exactly well in the tower despite the seeming peace, with his belly full Thomas retreated to his room, his mind working a mile a minute as he plotted and planned the steps necessary to make his way back to the HIVE, he had no direct method of communication, his student I.D. card allowed him entry into the school, but the Titan's as a whole had expressed a distinct distaste for his choice in friends, it was troubling but he refused to budge on the subject, after all a wise man once said you can't pass the whiskey to yourself. He slipped into his room to gather what remained of his belongings, he had the sinking suspicion that troublesome times were coming, and he wanted to have all his ducks in a row before making a move, he rooted through his belongings counting out the shells for his revolver and loading all four speed loaders, he packed away the loose rounds into his belt pack and fished out the replacement fatigues that Cyborg had been rather cool about getting for him, the olive drab was comforting, but the new clothes had a stiff sort of newness to them that would be felt for weeks, an aggravated sigh escaped the trouble young man, as he stowed his pistol on his belt and sheathed his knife in its usual spot, hand level on his right thigh, he pulled on the new fatigues and resisted the urge to wrinkle his nose at the "new car" smell, after lacing his boots and stashing what was left of his armor under his bed, he sat down once more and focused on finding the stillness, and plunged immediately into darkness for a quarter hour.

At ten thirty five P.M. the Titan's tower saw an intruder creeping through its halls for the second time in as many days, this time escaping from the premises as opposed to gaining entry, the Lunatic swift and silent down the halls his well worn in boots making nary a scuff as he drifted through the halls avoiding the sensor network that kept the teen heroes safe during their hours of rest, Tommy paused mid stride posed, still as a painting with his right foot inches from the ground, down the hall in the living room, he could hear Cyborg talking to someone over his internal comm, an unusual even given its nature, whom ever it was they must have been female because there was that *certain* twang that only ever seemed to find its way into conversation, when one was trying to charm the fairer sex, after impossible minutes Thomas continued his trek slinking past the flirting "older" teen and reaching the door, as he pushed the door open, he heard Cyborg clear his throat. "Where you heading out to this late?" drawled the metallic titan with a wide grin, the teasing expression came as such a relief that Tom nearly wept, he chose instead to flush, the stutter came more naturally, his denials were waved away and the older teen threw an affectionate arm around his fellow titan, "awww its alright Loony, its just a natural part of growing up, should I give you the talk? Do you have any questions, y'know about girls?, cause I don't mind" drawled the widely grinning Cyborg as he chucked Lunatic's chin with an alloyed knuckle, Tom manage to free himself with a nervous laugh and a stuttered denial, bursting through the doors and bolting for the tunnel at a dead run.

Lunatic stashed his communicator half way down the tunnel on top of one of the ventilation fans, then sprinted the rest of the trip, opting to avoid taking one of the "pubic" vehicles he never the less managed to exit the tunnel and took a sharp right making his way down the beach towards Carmichell's Steel works, and the old maintenance tunnels that hid there, he was startled to find someone waiting for him in the tunnels, well not waiting exactly but trying to make their way down them, he skidded to a halt a scant ten feet from the petite girl in the savagely grinning cat mask, she whirled on her heel and flicked a pair of blades coated in a slick black lacquer, Tom lurched to the right and barely evaded the first, his trailing left hand snatched out and caught the second blade returning it with a sharp flick of his wrist, drawing his revolver with his right hand and swinging the weapon towards the now moving masked assassin, a short curved blade flashed into her hand as she zig-zaged towards Thomas a blur of ivory and jade, not wanting to risk his hearing trying to fire at the blur of a target Tom swung his revolver at the approaching figure forcing her to parry the fast if plainly telegraphed swing a sharp ring jangled down the tunnel as his attacker's feet left the ground and he was forced onto the defensive blocking kicks to the head and slashes from her poisoned blade, the difference in skill was very apparent as he lashed out with a wide kick hoping to force her back a pace and give him room to fire, he was rewarded with a shallow slash along the length of his leg, Thomas cursed as the numbness struck his limb, he managed to retain his balance though with effort, his attacker hopped back into the fray and proceeded to drive the young hero further down the tunnel in an effort to keep from being disemboweled, he acutely missed his armor as he felt a blade sink into his shoulder the spreading cold soon had him reeling until finally he fell to his knees, and received a solid kick to the face.

Thomas toppled over his mind careening into the still place and the healing trance, a desperate bit to save his life as the poison spread through his body shutting down his systems. His eyes slid grittily open his tongue felt two sizes too big and his body shook, he felt the acute need for water that came with metabolizing toxins, he lurched to his feet and spent an embarrassing few moments relieving himself against the wall, he noted happily that his belongings remained on his person, collecting his pistol and knife, he tore off down the tunnel at an unsteady run, he caught the faintest hint of rose water and lavender growling low in his throat, his head rapidly clearing Lunatic gave chase running swift and silent down the tunnel bent nearly double as he moved in the tight confines of the tunnel following the scent of rose water and lavender.

His trip through the tunnels was uneventful, with nary a glimpse of his attacker, not as he left the tunnels and entered the ventilation system, and not as he prowled through the endless maze of golden corridors, he passed a number of faculty members, and nearly ran into the towering form of someone in bright red power armor, the only part of him that was visible was his face which had a Romanesque shape, proud chin, narrow black brows, and a sneer that immediately prickled Thomas' ire. "Outta the way little man, you don't wanna mess with this" at that Adonis gestured down the recently buffed armor, Lunatic paused in his pursuit of the cat masked girl, the urge to take a shot at the towering power armored fellow student reared up and pawed the ground, for a moment he was paralyzed with indecision, before finally he managed to to wrestle his fury to manageable levels before gritting out "have you seen a girl, bit shorter than me, white and green smiling cat mask, wearing a green, er short robe, uh thing?" the blank look that seemed to settle on the power armored teen , before a cocky sneer crawled across his face, her jabbed a broad finger into Thomas' chest "you need to start hittin the gym, tiny get yourself some guns and the ladies will come to you" with that the power armored youth "flexed" his barrel thick robotic limbs, and Thomas jaw dropped for a moment before erupting into hysterical laughter. Adonis stared down at the cackling boy in the military garb with steadily increasing fury, until after almost a minutes of the cackling, now sobbing with laughter, teen trying to regain his composure Adonis lashed out with a vicious back hand attempting to smear his annoying schoolmate. Promptly forgot his revelry and leapt out of reach, deciding that perhaps now was a good time to continue his chase.

The trail of rose water and lavender led him to one of his fellow classmates mates, a tall pale girl with a silver helmet and golden eyes, she regarded Thomas with a politely neutral expression, Kyd Wykkyd stood nearby his expressionless face the same as ever, it appeared that Tommy had interrupted a private conversation, grinning sheepishly and cursing his poor luck he excused himself hastily as the winged helmet wearing girl continued to explain hand held video games the puzzled Kyd.

It was a frustrating, fruitless half hour for our hero, he tore across the HIVE wriggling into every doorway, stairwell, training/classroom, and more then a few dorm rooms (getting chased from the girls dormitory by a towel clad bumblebee at long last) before he finally collapsed into a chair in the cafeteria with a disgusted sigh, the faculty members were already bringing out the huge quantities of food necessary to keep the ravenous appetites of the still growing villains, with a defeated sigh (and a growling stomach) he wandered into line and grabbed a tray waiting patiently while the line of mutants, super humans, cyborg monster men, and the socially challenged with a particular talent, or the can-do attitude to become a real psycho. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes, there isn't a thing that they can't cure, as he moved down the line to get the brightly colored gelatin cube, he came face to face with the lunch lady of the day, well more accurately her grinning cat mask.

Author's Notes cont.

Alright let me get this out of the way, I'm totally cool with the whole pairing thing, i like a little sappy romance and a bit of saucy "nudge-nudge, wink-giggle" but I don't much care to write it, teasing is about all I can manage. I won't lie to you, I've not a romantic bone in my body, anywho another chapter out more misdeeds of Thomas are yet to come.

-yours in spirit, Saint.


	16. Chapter 16 or the Piano's Been Drinking

It was an awkward moment to say the least, the girl her impassive(if creepily grinning) cat mask kept it's steady unblinking stare locked with his, and now garbed in an unflattering apron and hair net, held out a cup of raspberry jello expectantly as Tom tried to wrap his head around the whole thing, the impasse held for a few tense seconds before being broken by the annoyed shout of a one eyed kid in green "Take the damn jello or get out of line!" with a quick glance back at the one eyed kid behind him Tom took the proffered cup of jiggly "sort of food" and made his way amongst the tables, avoiding the "special" tables until he spotted a crowd of misfits both heavily armed and exhausted, these were his people, mostly normal, all insane, every one of them forced to work twice as hard for half the recognition, most of them could at best hope to lead a goon squad or at worst go solo before doing a long stint in a cold cell or slowly rotting in a shallow grave. The "SPECIAL" table was the place of pride, the students at these tables were power houses living weapons, potent magic users, super human power houses that could single handedly decimate an entire power armored division, from his spot muscled between a beefy man with dark skin and a set of robotic arms that looked rather intimidating though they seeped a foul smelling lubricant, a snarled bark of "don't shorten my god damned name, its one syllable, ONE! Jinx! not Jin, or Jinny, or babe, and I swear you call me sweet meat again.."

Jinx was livid, her pale features were flushed with rage, her boyfriend of the last few months was proving himself to be far more like his name sake than she could deal with any longer, their bedroom antics were... satisfying certainly but that seemed to be all there was any longer, the moronic giggle fit he was having with his boys was the final straw,the dumb slack jawed look he was giving her right now was too much as she barked into his face at last "find your own goddamn room, were done". Mammoth got to his feet, his eight foot barrel chested form easily dwarfing his now ex-girlfriends slender frame by close to three feet "whats that supposed to mean?" he growled staring down at her his heavy fists trembling as rage began clouding his vision in a red fog, "I'm sorry" cooed the pink haired Goth, "was that too complex for your little brain? I mean no more boom boom with me me" she snarked "your dumped deal with it minute man" with the laughter of his boys echoing in the now quiet cafeteria, his seat mate the cyborg chuckled like distant thunder "dis gon get messy kid, bes keep our heads down, ya?" with that the greasy cyborg got to his feet and made his way to the door at a brisk walk the doors swished open then closed just as Mammoth erupted with a deafening roar.

Thomas seeing the coming storm began rapidly shoveling his meal into his mouth swallowing the mashed potatoes whole and tearing into the beef as a chair flew towards the table he snatched his tray and his neighbors' drink off the table and dropped flat onto the floor still eating, while his table mates scattered, the special tables watched the gigantic teen throw a mighty fist crushing his chair flat and stomping towards the scattering crowd of students and faculty members, tables were crushed flat and flung about as Mammoth roared and howled his fury, Tom watched the carnage from the cover of his miraculously unharmed table his meal having long since vanished, he slurped noisily on his soft drink as only a dozen super humans continued eating quietly, projectiles of metal, wood, and plastic shattered against the reinforced floor and ceiling, or against hastily erected barriers. The one eyed kid in green was chatting peaceably nearby with Gizmo covered by a transparent hemisphere that looked alot like a huge eyeball, Thomas eyed the, uh eye for a moment from his position on the floor, toying with the empty aluminum can as Mammoth grappled with Adonis, the power armored teen smirked and babbled something about being off his game over a chick, before being flung across the cafeteria, with a deafening crash and screech of metal on metal as the hulking armored suit screamed to a halt against the far wall "ruuuude" wheezed the "Adonis".

With a disgusted sigh (and a full stomach) Tom crushed the can into a flat, nearly uniform disk and hurled it at the replete suit of power armor where it tinkled in the sudden silence, a quick glance showed that, the masked girl (still wearing her apron and hair net) had peppered the rampaging genetic giant's back with a trio of black feathered darts, the lumbering behemoth managed four unsteady steps before pitching forward and slamming into the reinforced floor plating with an impact that shook the remaining tables and chairs violently. Hopping to his feet and surveying the damage with a low whistle, the cafeteria looked as though it had been hit by a particularly pissed off tornado, tables were imbedded into walls, chairs stomped flat under furious feet, and from the look of it he had tried to peel back a section of floor plating before the masked girl filled him full of darts. Said masked girl was watching him, after a moment spent turning her head first left, then right before she seemed to realize she was still wearing the apron and hair net, with a flourish she cast them aside just as brother blood stepped through the cafeteria doors.

The scene that awaited Brother Blood was far from unexpected, even without a dozen dozen faculty members, and the cameras, and the seismic sensors informing him of the impacts of his favorite giant's fists, no the blind rage and unrestrained violence that flowed from the genetically augmented youth may as well have been smoke pouring through the doors. With a long suffering sigh and a nod to the four faculty members accompanying him, Mammoth was hauled from the decimated lunch room. The headmaster shook his head and turned to Cheshire and nodded politely "I suppose this means your shift on cafeteria duty has been cut short, would you be so kind as to escort young master Thomas to my office, i have a small matter to attend to but I shall be with you shortly" that said the headmaster turned smartly on his heel and strolled after his staff members his white robes whisking along behind him.

Thomas seethed silently at the sight of of Brother Blood's retreating form, with a blinding motion he drew his revolver squeezing the trigger six times, emptying the weapon with a deafening explosion of sound at a speed so fast, Cheshire could only flinch towards her own weapons, Brother Blood never broke stride, never turned around, the bullets simply pattered to the floor like the ringing of tiny glass bells, "every student gets one free shot, master Thomas, that was yours" the doors whisked closed with the head masters words hanging in the air. From across the cafeteria in a heap of dented metal that was once his suit Adonis wheezed a laugh, "buuuurn", only to have a chair bounce off his armored chest.

The Cat masked girl, with her long luxurious black hair, stood patiently beside the cafeteria doors, giving Tom a pointed look (he guessed it was pointed at least), in the bright light of the lunch room, he was disappointed to discover that the slight girl was almost a head shorter than him, and possessed a deceptively delicate build, he approached her reloading his gun stomping with frustration at his impotent attack on the head master, with a spin of the cylinder and a whirling flourish he holstered his weapon back on his hip, thumbing the leather strip that held it in place over the weapon's hammer, he stood before the petite ninja staring down at her from an unaccustomed difference in height, "you looked taller in the tunnel" he grunted, she didn't say a word, simply shrugged and gestured to the doors before turning on her heel and walking through the doors and into the hall beyond. Thomas followed after the retreating form, his longer stride allowed him to catch up to her with ease, following her at about arms length, he scented the air as unobtrusively as he could trying to latch onto some kind of identifying odor, she stopped cold and whirled around so fast her long hair smacked into his face hard enough to send him back a pace, embarrassed Thomas muttered "right its a social faux pas to go around sniffing people I keep forgetting that" the masked girl shook her head, not bothering to break stride.

"Ok how the heck do you keep hitting me? Seriously! how? I can dodge bullets for fuck sake" griped Tom as he trailed after the cat masked girl, silenced reigned in the halls for a few steps as our hero awaited a reply, "your not a big talker, are you?" he tried, five more paces still nothing, "you know, when we were fighting in the tunnel..." he skipped in close and puffed into her ear "I could see your knickers", abrupt darkness followed that ill advised statement.


	17. Chapter 17 or Back on the Farm

Well Ladies and Gentlemen its time for another chapter in the adventures of Thomas, and his misadventures in and around the HIVE

It became readily apparent that, informing a professional, assassin, ninja, thing that you peeked at her undies during a life and death brawl, was a bad idea, also that someone was dragging him, that last one was distinctly annoying, also his head felt about three times two times larger than one would find comfortable. A groan of discomfort escaped him, and whoever decided to drag him promptly dropped his ankle, with a grunt Tom leapt to his feet and got an eyeful of the masked ninja (assassin, thing's) back and swishing tail of hair disappearing into the headmaster's office, "y'know for a little thing your pretty strong" he muttered as he wandered after her retreating form and into the gloom of Brother Blood's private sanctum.

The Headmaster was waiting for them, already seated in front of the desk was the snarkily grinning, if diminutive form of Gizmo, the technophiles head gleamed in the dull glow given off by the six thick candles arranged at even intervals around the office, dimly illuminating the walls of book shelves, Tom did his best to identify any of them with little success, Brother Blood watched as the extra-dimensional teenager as he looked about his office, when it became apparent that he was planning to start in on one of the books written in English Brother Blood impatiently cleared his throat, "we're waiting on you, Master Thomas" with a long suffering sigh Tom wandered over and settled into one of the plush chairs keeping his hands away from the arm rests (he'd seen James Bond enough to know that was where the restraints were). Gizmo seethed as he glanced over at the dork who had some months ago humiliated him, the cold rage was still there, mingled only some what with the fear that Brother Blood could tell he wasn't paying *complete* attention to what was being said, his computer rig was recording the entire thing for later review, he continued to quietly glower at Lunatic, Cheshire sighed internally and settled in for a lengthy tirade from the potent psychic and watched the unstable element in the room, Gizmo for his part was fiddling with a hand held game and doing his best to ignore everyone in the room, his fingers flew over the buttons absently as his HUD panned through the various wireless signals and networks hurling him through the non-space of the net and landing him a scant distance from the prison mainframe, with a rather unsettling grin, he muttered "bingo".

Tom watched Gizmo out of the corner of his eye for a few moments taking in the wide grin and shuddering, he caught Cheshire's eye (so to speak) and mouthed F-R-E-A-K, with some some exaggeration, the ninja (assassin thing) gave no indication that she was listening or watching. The Headmaster began with as sigh "Had I any alternatives rest assured master Thomas, I would have sent my three star pupils instead of my...prodigal son, unfortunately for you it seems our current investor has requested you specifically for this particular engagement, I found it odd but considering the money involved I felt it inappropriate to refuse...", Tom tuned out the calm voice of the Headmaster at this point in the monolog, he figured he could catch the important bits from Gizmo's recording if it came to that, while he had never participated in a jail break before he was certain it was your basic infiltration and retrieval. He sat for what felt like an eternity, he began contemplating attacking the Head Master a second time, the room was full of possibilities tall bookshelves standing easily twenty feet high, one good pull and BLAMO! dead man... he frowned and figured that if *he* could dodge a falling book case the Head Master wouldn't have much trouble at all, just as well he thought gazing at the deep mahogany shelves filled end to end with precious knowledge, a shame to damage such treasures, his eyes fell on the desk, another heavy wooden edifice solid black ebony polished like a mirror, the solid reinforced wall behind the old man one solid kick and it would be as a scythe to wheat, a glance at the old man's face was very telling, a slow smile spread across his composed visage his agate eyes unafraid, it was enough to quell the immediate urge to try his luck, the odds were against him after all two people who *could* beat him in a straight up fight as well as one technophile that came damn close, not the best chances.

The meeting came to a close with Brother Blood politely taking Tom aside, "I could not help but notice the lack of weapons and armor master Thomas, perhaps I could be of some assistance, he strode from the office beckoning for the younger man to follow, with a resigned sigh he leapt after the Head Master taking up the steel haired man's stride with a slightly brisker pace, through the winding halls of the Hive. They walked in uncomfortable silence for a brief span, passing halls and door ways in the seemingly endless labyrinth that was the school of villainy, until at last they stood before an elevator, "you've never been to the Hive workshops have you master Thomas?" smirked the older man as he pressed several buttons upon the wall panel causing the doors to whisk open on well maintained tracks, as the pair stepped in a call rose up from down the hall "hold the elevator!" cried a girl dressed in skin tight black pants, a black and yellow striped top that bared most of her impressive abdominal muscles, as she approached Tom noticed with a slight twinge of pride that the dark skinned girl was almost three inches taller than then himself, she smiled cockily down at him from, he noted high heeled boots, he contented himself to the idea that it was artificially enhanced height as he kept his gaze locked evenly with the taller girl, it was a measuring look that left him feeling a bit intimidated, it was the boundless confidence of one who could crush stone in their bare hands, the moment was interrupted when Brother Blood cleared his throat "Bumble Bee, this is Lunatic I don't believe you've been properly introduced" Tom thrust out his hand grinning, the taller girl smiled quite fetchingly and took his hand firmly but not crushingly arching an elegant brow, as he squeezed her hand firmly but politely in return, "nice ta meet you" she intoned, releasing his hand and returning it to her shapely hip just above an odd bit of badly mangled wire, she noted his gaze and frowned "you had better be lookin at my weapons if you wanna keep yer good looks" there was a definite threatening growl in the statement that send Tom's eyes shooting back up to her now frowning features, a cheery grin made its way across his face as he cleared his suddenly dry throat, " your gear seems to have been damaged, playing a bit rough in the gym?" he teased, letting his eyes stray down her impressive form to rest upon her weapons, they were made of the same golden material as Private Hive's shield, the thought of his missing friends sent an odd disquiet into his very core, he mulled the question over until he felt a solid blow strike the side of his head that sent him into the wall with enough force to rattle the elevator car.

When Bumble Bee stormed out of the elevator with a vexed huff (and his head stopped spinning) he turned his gaze to Brother Blood and rubbed his aching head, "what happened to Billy and P.H.? I haven't seen hide nor hair of either of them since getting here, normally they are in the cafeteria during lunch, and its kinda hard to miss Billy, he's sort of loud" chuckled Tom as his head slowly stopped aching, his eyes followed the storming winged girl down the hall ahead of them, her odd insectile wings twitched and fluttered in annoyance, "she's terribly cute when vexed" he mused. Brother Blood arched a brow as Tom stared after one of his top students, his exclamation was plainly audible in the quiet hall, Bumble Bee paused mid stride her wings snapped out straight before she smoothed them back down and continued on her trip at a more hurried pace, "please don't aggravated my students unnecessarily, especially the ones that can smash apart a bank vault with their bare hands" groaned the Head Master as he lead the way to their intended destination, he paused in the doorway of the work shop, the lower levels of the Hive were his least favorite place within his school, the depths always seemed to attract the truly odd, the antisocial brain children, mad chemists, secretive doctors wanting their particular deviance tended to, the sheer foul reek of base thoughts, mingled with flashes of intense inspiration often left the aged psychic's head aching for hours afterward, with a slow shake of his head he stepped aside and allowed the stocky form of his pupil past him into the dry hot depth of the first forge.

"As I understand it, your enhancements often outstrip the capabilities of your body, the flesh of your hands tear when forced through brick, though your muscle and bone can with stand the blow" Tom absently thrust his scarred hands into his pockets, his face flushed as he muttered under his breath, "your point being?". The Head Master never lost his smile, "Master Reinhart!" he called, from an adjacent doorway attached to the rather cluttered common room stepped a familiar cyborg, his rather clunky looking arms whirred as he strode into the room "Ead Masta, tis good ta see you, what kin ah do fer ya today?" drawled the tall cyborg, his left arm rolled smoothly upwards slicking back his hair leaving a faint slick sheen to the already oily hair do, Brother Blood smiled indulgently, Reinhart was perhaps the most stable of the deep dwellers, he had created (or so he claimed) a rather impressive compound that Wayne enterprises had attempted to monopolize, in his fury at their attempted treachery he burnt his lab to the ground, and lost his arms in the process, a small price to pay for protecting what was mine, he had said, but that was unimportant, shaking away the threads of memory, Brother Blood smiled a bit broader, gesturing towards his on again off again pupil "this is Lunatic, as you can see he is woefully unarmored and his hands in particular require reinforcement", Reinhart interrupted "one of dem what, has more strength den structural support, ah've seen it afore" Reinhart gestured to a plaster spattered chair resting against the far wall, "take off ya shirt an sit inna chair, we start wit de hard part" Reinhart drawled leading the way absently dusting off the seat with a hand broom, and brought out a large rectangular mold with an opening near the top that would allow a man's head to fit snuggly through it, if he didn't mind scraping his ears, the now grinning cyborg began mixing a bucket full of plaster, humming a strange tune under his breath as his arms whirred and began to drip more lubricant, "at least it doesn't stink" thought Lunatic out loud as he settled into the grimy chair, by the time Thomas had settled into the chair Reinhart had a bucket full of chalky muck ready to pour into the mold, "dis gon take bout half hour a hand, ya might wan get a magazine or some ought" informed the grinning cyborg politely, Tom shrugged and sighed "I don't have much in the way of entertainment options at hand" Reinhart grinned and said "try an keep still anyroad, ya?" before pouring the chalky plaster into the container, Tom thrust his hand upto the elbow into the box and spread his fingers settling into his seat for a long wait, as he let his eyes wander the room he noted Reinhart had vanished from the room back behind the curtain he had first appeared from.

After about five minutes, in which Tom listened to Reinhart wander around his, lab?, bedroom?, workshop?, whatever, fiddling with who knows what behind the curtain, it was at that point a familiar thin frame in a black and silver suit strolled past the door and stopped as though he had struck a wall, it took Tom a moment to recognize the fellow, the neatly trimmed goatee, the narrowed manic eyes (a VERY common trait in the HIVE), the over sized gauntlets with their strange focusing array, he smiled broadly as the name burbled into his memory, "Hey Dr Light!" chirped the immobile part time hero, "hows the head? I didn't know you were part of the HIVE, that a recent thing?, ain't ya a little old for school or are you a faculty member or something?" Babbled Tom, excited to have something to do at last, even if it was fend of a deranged bank robber with a photon fixation. For his part Dr Light was dumb struck, of all the places to meet the impudent fool that had bested him in so humiliating a fashion (some part of his psyche fought tooth and nail to forget what happened to him at the claws of Beastboy and Raven, suffice it to say he hadn't worn briefs since) now that they stood less then ten strides apart he was stuck for how to respond, his mouth worked for several seconds, as though he were chewing gum in the rudest manner possible before working upto a sputter of outrage, "y-y-y-YOU!, how DARE you violate this most sacred refuge of the truly brilliant! a fatal mistake one never to be repeated" he raised his armored fists, however before his hands had reached the half way point an Tomas yanked the chair out from under his rump and flattened the good doctor against the now dented wall adjacent to the doorway. As the concussed photophile groaned in an unconscious heap on the floor Lunatic frowned from his position now squatting awkwardly beside the plaster mold "in hind sight I should have just shot him..." he sighed.

An uncomfortable half hour later, followed by Reinhart laughing at the grumbling form of the sometimes hero, Tom replaced the chair he had thrown at the good Dr, there had been a tense moment when Light had regained consciousness, and made to blast Tom where he squatted, but five seconds staring down the barrel of Tom's pistol convinced him to leave without comment, hindsight cheerily informed him that he could have had the good doctor return the hurled chair while they were having their little stand off, though blessedly when the second mold was poured Reinhart remained behind setting up a small card table and producing a bag of dominos as well as a pleasantly swishing bottle of passable rum, as they played, Tom losing badly, Reinhart explained precisely why they needed a mold of his hands, and eventually his torso (much to Tom's dismay) the process of weaving the armor required near exact measurements as each thread was about a micron thick, this allowed for structural stability and increased resilience, blah blah blah blah. Our hero's eyes began to cross at this point but having listened to more than one of Billy's tall tales he knew where to nod and where to ask Reinhart to elaborate, though out of the ramble he learned that the cyborg's nickname (he didn't think of himself as a bad guy really) was Spinner, and that though he didn't have a power per say he had discovered a compound that mimicked spider webs though with several marked differences, and coined a molecular weaving technique that should have earned him a Nobel prize not, as he recounted bitterly had him branded a madman and a vandal. By this time the bottle was mostly done and spinner was pouring a thick gooey brownish gel into each mold proclaiming that they needed only to sit over night then he could begin making Lunatic's new toys.

As it happened they only needed to layer on a bit of fiber glass over the... er important bits then they would make a scale model of his torso area then he would begin weaving the cloth and plates that would make him the sturdiest armor anywhere, Tom was somewhat leery of the belief that this armor would be better than his last set but he was hopeful, any armor was better than none (so said his ribs), so he smiled great fully and politely thanked Spinner for the company and the work he was likely to be occupied with for some time before hastily excusing himself from the bowels of the lab and wandered the halls. He did his best not to get lost in the twisting labyrinth of the HIVE's lower levels, it was quieter down here, a rhythmic thrumming of some manner of pump, or valve system, its slow steady beat was oddly comforting, the lack of people down in the depths was likewise soothing, as he wandered, he adjusted his stride resting each foot fall as gently as possible so as to minimize the noise of his steps, as he drifted along, growing less and less concerned with where he was or where he was going, falling into a near daze, his feet ghosted along the floor plates for a small eternity as the on/off hero's thoughts returned to him and ventured into dark territory thoughts, plans of revenge, well maybe not revenge exactly but something had to be done about brother blood, the threat to his newly discovered sanity shook him in a very disconcerting manner, his current armament was simply not sufficient to dealing with the task, if the head master could stop a high caliber pistol round he'd either need a bigger gun, or some help in dealing with the rather impressive psychic, he was hesitant to involve the Titans, some fragment of pride warring with his common sense, his musings continued for some time and distance, plans each more hare brained and (even in his mind) unlikely to succeed, until he felt a cool hand tap him on the shoulder.

Thomas' scream bounced along the length and breadth of the HIVE raising more than a few heads and interrupting several classes, Gizmo in his room paused in his work to look over at the vent in the middle of his ceiling, the hovering spheres around him buzzed like angry hornets as though annoyed, mirroring their creator's mood, the bald technophile grumbled "pea-brained kludge head's annoying even when hes not here" with a sigh he adjusted his goggles rubbing tired eyes for a moment reaching out for the mug of long cold coffee and emptying the mug in three short swallows, with the new surge of caffeine making its way sluggishly through his veins he replaced his goggles and continued working on sphere number four.

Tom hit the roof, literally, deep thoughts mixed in with the silent arrival of his antagonist caused him to leap straight up into the bundle of pipes and cables that lined the ceiling of the lower levels, denting some of the less rigid lines and landing on his backside with his head spinning, Kyd Wykkyd stared dispassionately down at his dorm mate, who soon regained his feet whirling on the impassive red eyed fiend (in his opinion), "don't do that!" yelped the fearless super soldier, Kyd stared at the indignant form of his dorm mate (whose absence mend days on end of peace and quiet) waiting for him to stop muttering and fuming, once Lunatic had regained his equilibrium and gave his full attention to the silent cloaked specter, said specter produced from the shadows of a nearby panel a small rectangle of grey paper, that was as it turned out a newspaper clipping, he handed the bit of reading material to the confused Lunatic and was about to vanish when Tom grabbed his shoulder, "uh, d'ya think your could take me with you, I have no idea where I am right now" admitted the embarassed sort of hero, with a quiet puff of breath that could almost be considered a sigh, Kyd opened his cloak revealing the impenetrable darkness within, with a greatful smile Tom leapt into the shadows, and slammed head first through the blessedly thin door of a closet.


End file.
